Copyright © 2011
by Denise Banker
Empty Bowl Press
|
In Swimming the Colorado, Denise Banker's poems capture the reader for an
intense existential journey from remembered childhood into an adulthood haunted
by loss and grief but redeemed through nature by love. The lyrics —
beautifully etched — are at turns provocative, sensuous, healing, and real.
This is Banker's long-awaited first collection. — from the publisher
Denise Banker's poems have an uncanny ability to be at once soothing and
rattling, to speak to us like an old, long-loved friend while also lifting
us from our comfort zones and tossing us to parts unknown. They chart a course
that ranges from unfathomable grief to bright transcendence. I won't be prying
myself loose from them anytime soon. — Meghan Daum
Opening to these lifetime poems, I felt refreshed and touched keenly as well,
humanly: brisk, telling word-moments livening every part of speech, gifting us
the present tense, stopping on the edge of recognition, passion blent in the
dazzling exact presence of flora, fauna too, until the verse turns terser,
abraded, true. — John Felstiner
Denise Banker has produced a truly elegant work. The poem titles alone make you
want to read every page, carefully, several times, making sure you catch the
nuances, make the connections with your own life and memories, and wonder how
much of this imagery comes from her own experiences and how much from her
observations of others. She has captured, as only a poet can, the subtle
richness of life in an arid land. — John Janovy, Jr
|
What the Critics Say
Bibliography
