Splendor

Poets and their poems, from the relatively recent W.D. Snodgrass and Robert Lowell through Sylvia Plath on beyond Adrienne Rich to Sharon Olds, Carolyn Forche and Claudia Rankine, get a lot of praise for being honest and revealing of the murkiest outlines of the heart or surveying and sometimes examining our conscience. And they deserve it. Poetry can do that. Emily Bludworth de Barrios joins that company with Splendor as it mercilessly and glamorously displays heart and conscience sharp with observation, unflinching, careful, thoughtful and accomplished. - Dara Wier