- Glimmerglass Girl
- Holly Lyn Walrath
- Finishing Line Press
Publisher / Amazon / BN / Book Depository / Indiebound
A fantastical account of womanhood, Glimmerglass Girl contains 24 poems that each have their individual merits. The themes of womanhood emerge in reducing ourselves ‘she memorises little spaces she could hide in,’ Performance ‘of his palm like a world / revolving slowly in it / she is held / he watches her turn / music softly tinkling / and her head tilted just so – he can hold her hands up like / ballerinas dance /’ and being alone ‘loneliness can fester, wounded, and eat up your heart, leaving only a dark grotto, etched with predators,’
Poem The Art of Loneliness was by far my favourite. I also liked this line, and the poem it is in towards the end of the book, which took my breath away, ‘if I dream it enough, it frays thin, dies a ghost death easier than his, the boy I played with on a wet fall day.’ Memories, White Matter.
The precision of Walrath’s writing, and its meaning leaves a lingering impression. The illustrations, some superimposed into the background of the poems, gave the book a vintage feel. I left Glimmerglass Girl wanting to read more of Walrath’s writing.
Poetic Insights 