Flourish

Poetry. "A brandishment of insouciant play, Jeanette Marie Clough's FLOURISH is a 'bold or extravagant gesture or action' from start to finish. Luring us with the name of a 'thing' we think we know and a slant first line, even the table of contents is refreshing. And yes, there is narrative--an explosive, subterranean one--but what is so distinctive is the wholly unusual method by which it is deployed: like hot post-modern pancakes on a platter. You can eat in any order, pile on several at a time--you can even shuffle them. Think of them as thing poems, part definition / riddle / koan. That dictionary you didn't know you needed: it's this one. With sly humor and casual self- mockery, line by playful/deadly line, Clough redefines the upended world as it has redefined her. Even within the sprawl of a sometimes-harrowing emotional arc, the poems pop with wild originality and bracing joy. I cannot get enough of them."--Sarah Maclay "FLOURISH, the new Jeannette Marie Clough book, never relies on external simplicities. Rather, we're offered the delight of Clough's inner certainty in defining the unknowable. Her poem 'Cold' begins: 'Alone it has no shape,' then proceeds to give us marvelous, original shapes for cold, including fireflies and a knick-knack shelf. 'Acoustic Rain,' a brilliantly inspired poem, explains--perfectly--enlig htenment. This latest book offers Clough's mature depth of understanding, her wry humor, her sensuality and her willingness to risk herself creatively in order to portray our world as a whole new planet. Ever her faithful reader, I'm more than happy to live there."--Holly Prado "Jeanette Marie Clough's newest collection, FLOURISH, reminds me once again why I should read poetry. To paraphrase Kazantsakis' from The Last Temptation, it is a truth which gives us wings that lets us soar.