Read the 2023 Reviews!

By: Starchild

Every time I read this beautiful book, A motto pops into my head. It says that a picture speaks a thousand words. However, this wordly scrapbook speaks a billion. This book is an homage to women by combining poetry and biblical history as one. He writes this book to show all the women who taught him to be the person that he is today. It's like a literary movie of poetic memories depicting how females aren't just the cornerstones of his life but our lives as well. I love how he describes women with great detail in his past, present, and future. I never would have imagined someone could make such a beautiful, insightful, and delightful indication of women. This is a must-read for any man, woman, or non-binary. Also, I love how he ends his poems with a variety of vivid pictures. I love flowers! Who doesn't love flowers? They brighten up anyone's day. If you ever want to understand women to the core, depleted by an amazing poet, Here it is. You won't be disappointed.

- Ed Poetastic 

By: Vexed Lex

Alexis’s debut poetry anthology is a collection spanning the last ten years of her life, touching on family and home life, romance, grief, and mental health. She even has political pieces that seem to be just as relevant as ever, showing the type of writer she always has been—aware, poignant, and witty. Alexis can go from dark and hopeless to comedic and idealistic. She has a great handle on talking about the uglier emotions many people shy away from—jealousy, disappointment, and a desire for more. With the title of the book, I was unsure of what sort of ending we could expect. From beginning to end, what will change?

Though it feels like we end on a down slope, there’s a growth and maturity in her writing. We see the change from adolescence to adulthood through her poems. I think many people will relate to the seasons of life’s changes and how we experience this through her eyes. I look forward to seeing more from this writer and where she will go from here. I read the entire book all in one day.

- Scarlet Gomez, author of How I Remember It

By: Nicko Kim

Kim's poetry chugs along full of rhyme, rhythm, and percussive power. The words pull themselves off the page into flow that moves from exploration of bare emotional trauma to bantering braggadocio to insightful commentary. You may find yourself swirling, picking up speed, slowing down to ponder, and then racing off again and again as you move from page to page. His language rings of the topical with allusions to the classical as counterpoint and comic. Recasting rage as melodic conversation he presents us with a volume of work thrumming with energy and challenging us to feel how hurt and humor reveal hard truths. 

- Michael Sindler, Beat Poet Laureate of Colorado

Nicko Kim's "Bare-Knuckle Bacchusing" is his way of writing for his generation their version of being "The Lost Generation." This book is a powerful male book and not for the faint or weak who cannot stand up to the rigors of the challenge of the debate proffered by an educated and intelligent poet armed with the fists of his raw mental skill to form his poetic art. This book is a punch in the face by a double barreled shotgun blast and burns all the way down like shots of cheap vodka, put on the brass knuckles if you dare. 

- Dane Ince, Beat Poet Laureate of California

By: Karen Garrabrant

Karen Garrabrant tells us "this is the era of letting go / the year of releasing" ... Driving Into Midnight navigates grief and joy, from personal loss to the real faces of gentrification with a deft, caring hand and with the voice of someone who has stomped and shouted with equal aplomb at American power structures and their own lungs. This collection is a manual for How To Love So Fierce and Full. It is both testimony and confessional...these poems show up and keep showing up. Now that's love.

- Rob Sturma, author, HEAD V HEART

Driving into Midnight ... is a stunning collection of luminous poetry. Each piece carves out scenes, feelings, sensuous moments. A hot summer night. The arms of a friend. A casual exchange at a stoplight. Garrabrant’s work celebrates the body at all times - even when surviving a pandemic, working, and grieving. The reader will find a glowing world in these pages - sad, joyous, bitter, laughing, full of rage, and most of all full of love.

- Louise Robertson

From within the fallout of 2020 and the following years, this punk - with a reputation for showing up - has met us once again in Driving Into Midnight. Garrabrant's book is that black leather jacket one needs for the ride.

-Marjorie Hendrix

By: Shockie G

There's a genuine boldness that any reader could appreciate in this work. It's raw and full of colorful pictures that swell hearts and share secrets many have yet to speak out loud. A needed addition to complete any library. Such magnificent work. What a journey!!

- Coach Jah Smalls

Buckle up for this powerful, and deeply personal book pf poetry. In this collection of poems, Shockie G unveils a formidable voice that transcends time, space, emotion, and reality. An extremely compelling journey. "In Lieu of Flowers" reveals a candid look at life that doesn't conform to the "norms of society..." In her uniquely embracing style, Shockie lays bare her own struggles and challenges. If you've ever pondered what it was like to walk in an 'other than my shoes' this is a must-read.

-Jane Spokenword

By: Marcos Cervantes

Marcos pulls us into the hallways of love through vivid imagery and exposes us to all the appendages that touch with the forces of life experience. He reminds us of the highs and lows that capture us in moments over time. Sometimes we fall hard and get up light ready to pursue that fascinating thing we call love again. Strolling the corridors of love with Marcos, we can say this is poetry that we can sit with and reflect on our own personal experiences. I strongly recommend Marcos' work for your good reads list.

- Teresa E. Gallion, author of Scent of Love

By: Emily Cordes

With inspiration from the Tarot spread with an adept hand, Emily Cordes weaves a beautifully wrought collection of poems about our times. This collection is proclamation, a toast…exultant, despite the fears, grief, illness, chaos that surrounds us.  

– Alise Versella, author of Tender Is The Body & A Psalm For The Weary

The Queen of Swords, Emily Cordes, wields her sword - a pen at face value, her unflinching register of the world, her secret weapon - yet again. Her artistry is on full display, complete with storytelling, nostalgia, allegory, visceral imagery, rhyme, rhythm, and a dramatic fusion of Tarot, reality and fantasy. This work of art is “brave…brazen…[and] wide-eyed,” reminding us that “[we are] no less the blessed for our scars.

– Maureen P. Medina, author of My Fears Out Loud

By: Kimberlee Adonna

To read Kim Adonna's Quiver is to shine, soar to the heights of the Peruvian Andes on calloused feet, and remember the dreams of being young and free and wanting to grow up to become Spiderman. There is a full, compassionate heart, a steady calming voice that speaks through these poems, and these poems need to be heard as much as read. Don't be fooled by that voice that says reading out loud is something you outgrow.  Some words are better said out loud, and many of them can be found, like arrows in this full Quiver, just in time and ready to be knocked and set free.

- Don McIver, author of Mud in the Stacks:  a Poetic Celebration of Bob Dylan

Kimberlee Adonna’s book, Quiver, is so honest that she is sometimes unkind to herself, as expressed in the poem, “I Can Hold My Stomach Like a Bag of Dough.” This is, of course, what poetry should strive for.

Ms. Adonna admits to loneliness and a need for real love. She works through uncomfortable and sometimes dark relationships gracefully and with little vitriol, but she never succumbs to platitudes. She is charitable to her alcoholic mother and loving to her former boyfriends and girlfriends. Even when writing about them, she finds surprising ways to express her feelings. I highly recommend (this) book of poetry for anyone who wants to swim in Ms. Adonna’s wonderful language and deep honesty.

- Deborah Coy, retired editor of Beatlick Press and author of Beyond the End of the Road and Super Crone (coming soon)

By: Tabatha Adams

Tabatha Adams uses her pen to weave a collage of past tragedies, hardships, and losses in order to inspire the reader. Her motto is I am a woman; hear me roar. I think we all can agree that it's not easy being a woman, but a few try their best to break the inner and outer glass ceilings. If you listen to the book closely, you can hear the roars of her past and present fusing into a well-written testament to how far she has come and gone. The writer highlights some key facts in her poems that make you express deep emotions like sadness, grief, loss, and gain. I personally want to thank her for being strong and brave in this ugly yet beautiful world. If you want to see or feel emotions in every word and sentence, please buy this book. You won't be disappointed.

- Ed Poetastic 

By: Rick Spisak

It’s a privilege.”A maker of poetry that’s immediately lyrical & sardonic, mellifluous & laconic; a poet of the realpolitik.”

- Robert Cole

Rick Spisak’s poetry works as a panacea for what ails us.  His rhyming poetic high life gives a dance tour of tap and shuffle to deliver hijinx on themes serious, philosophical and light.  He may even change a few minds.  Highly recommended!

- Laura Grevel

Richard Spisak has creativity oozing from every pore. ‘Stone Poetry’ spans universal concerns, tinged with satire as his poetic canvas eulogizes packing off the rich into space, makes an octopus into a metaphor for state surveillance and tenderly celebrates Earth Day with the sprouting of a seedling. His book is a must-read for every poet with a penchant for humorous critiques.

- Meher Prestonji