This Close

Karen Klein's This Close is a beautiful read, the poems ranging widely in mood and tone. Her partner's painful, fatal illness includes a grieving awareness of her own body registering "the meaning of old." Parthenon presents an excited "First time tourist," while Tribal Tongues is playful about Yiddish that enriches "...my tribe/those meshugena enough to make poems." Commitment to Poetry describes her mysterious process of vision: "Poetry made a commitment to me...pulled words out of me...scant rain dew on my face...I melt into it," an engaging, sensitive collection. - Nina Rubinstein Alonso, author, Riot Wake, editor, Constellations a Journal of Poetry and Fiction