Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/765213
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2017 MACON MAGAZINE | 73 use art pieces - Klimt's "Recumbent Lovers" is one – to explore the nuances of a long-term romantic relationship. Some poems address what it is to be a woman grappling with the frustrations of aging. The sonnet "Red Never Lasts" makes a stark metaphor out of fingernail polish; after a lifetime of choosing vivacious, sexy reds, "[e]ventually, the fuss is too much to maintain. / Time to settle in to the neutral tones. / Baby's Breath. Curtain Call. Bone." There are poems here, too, that hum with beauty, tender attention to detail and luscious, loaded imagery; in the final poem, "Three Roses," the narrator's chest scar gives way to a blooming red rose, her remaining right breast becomes a white rose, and inside her chest is a gold rose which "spreads petals in the chambers of my heart, / gold touching every dark cell of my body with love." Anya Silver's technical gifts shine here; these poems are compressed powerhouses that snatch up language and use it sometimes like a whip and sometimes like a soothing touch. Her words are languid and lovely when they need to be, and brusque and blunt when the subject matter requires. These poems want to be read out loud. Take the time to savor them that way and you'll be rewarded with an exquisite appreciation for the sounds and rhythms packing each line. And the intimacy and honesty with which Silver writes is a gift. She expects her readers to be not only able but willing to pay attention - as we all should - to the way the world can mutate when seen through the lens of pain and grace. FROM NOTHING LSU Press 80 pgs/paperback $17.95