Swirl

by Susan McCabe

"Susan McCabe's Swirl is a constantly provocative and often wildly inventive debut collection of poetry. Edgy and wise, sly and disarming, these poems are both cinemagraphic and kaliedescopic in their workings. Profoundly gestural and always powerful, Swirl introduces to American poetry a memorable and compelling new voice."

--David St. John

"Every sentence in Susan McCabe's gorgeous poems is a sounding. Her lines haunt...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1888996706
• ISBN13: 9781888996708
• Release Date: April 2014
• Publisher: Red Hen Press
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Powerful Swirl of Words and Images

Susan McCabe's "Swirl" is perfectly titled: each poem sends us into a powerful swirl of words and images. She be can disarming, too honest, with accusations spat out as in the beginning of "When the Shore Moved": "You're bumping anyway./ Facing out is about trying to./ Bandages worn without./ There's nothing more to spill is there." Notice she does not end this last sentence in a question mark though you would expect one. It is as if McCabe has no qualms about answering her queries all within one phrase. And her couplets! Listen: "The unswum pool lies still,/ olive cat sipping its reflection." And this: "By the time we stumbled out,/ the moon had lost its pompadour." McCabe is a remarkable poetic voice whose words dance, confuse and infuse. This is a beautiful, slender book.