Hapax: Poems

With an academic background in English literature, and a good bit of reading under my belt, I have found my contemporary poetic voice in A E Stallings: a woman's sensibility, a poet's wondrous eye and ear for metaphor, a joy in (and playing with) poetic forms, a background in Classics. Indeed, Stallings sometimes dips into Greek mythology to refresh contemporary experience even as she renders contemporary experience immediate, even (beautifully) painful. I actually have this book on my nightstand and read a few poems each night. They always yield a new twist, a new delight in form or implication, a new pleasure. Stallings is my absolute favorite modern poet, bar none, and has been for several years.

I liked these poems, especially the limericks about mythological characters. However, I think that her volume Archaic Smiles was a better collection.