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[Northerngal]

"Here is a person of warm words and deep thought, brought beautifully to our table in this utterly brilliant collection of verse. I expected someone I could walk and talk with to sit with me when I opened ‘Every Girl Has Her Limits’ and she was indeed that, but I also discovered a person of immense knowledge, poetic bravura and wisdom. This is not just ‘a collection of verse’ as the subtitle humbly suggests. It is a bench-mark collection of huge gravitas.

Here is someone not trying to impress us with stylistic complexities or poetic conceits but someone who simply loves words and wants to glory in their power, their pictures and subtleties.

Jolen clearly found her rainbow in words and shares generously, wielding them with the precision a fine artist, using broad strokes in poems such as The Gods are Jealousor using fine point work in My Sky or in Without Redemption: “My feelings are a vast ocean/ you contain in a thimble.”

Her images are never perfunctory or over-played, each one selected carefully and precisely as in I Miss the Hummingbirds, Scavengeror even in Overdue which quietly mocks itself and the use of metaphors. Brave girl indeed to ask a Librarian to review that one!

Jolen is a poet unafraid of using her voice and doesn’t side-step contentious issues. I love the cut of Hunting and the latent anger of Do Not Resuscitate which reminded me in its breathtaking openness of Sharon Olds. Contrast these to the humorous poke at 21st century living in We Have Made the World Small: “We surf the net, play tennis on wii/ and overlook humanity/ with a blink of each occluded eye.”

In Shooting Stars we have: “And I with my ripe sensuality/on a vine heavily bent by its fruit.” and later in the heartbreaking >i>Escrime the simplicity of: “Suddenly, I longed to be daddy's little girl again,/sitting meekly at his feet” Splitting the collection into five intriguingly-named sections added to my enjoyment. The section Opposite Faces is an utter triumph and contains some of the finest love poetry I have read this year. Jolen feels things keenly but never risks sentiment. I read Today I Had A Moment almost forgetting to breathe, so captivating was it: “Today, I had a moment./ One minute you didn't occupy./ I was free, I was fine, I could breathe.” This is love poetry at its finest.

Jolen clearly understands her craft, using traditional forms to great effect in Ouroboros, Vacancy and Midnight Orchids or A Quiet Eveningand yet never compromises her meaning to serve the tightness of metre or form. It serves her, rather than restricts. Few poets master this with such winsome ease.

This collection is definitely one of them. Bravo Jolen! I have loved sharing the table. -- Dawn Bauling / Ronnie Goodyer. Editors: Indigo Dreams Press

[Target]

Is anyone else confused?