Learning by Rote

Poetry. Martina Newberry is a surprising poet. Just when you think you know what she knows, you don't. She knows more and has the words to prove it. I found myself falling for her sense of things, appreciating not only that she has earned it but that she displays it with a nicely sharp edge.--Eloise Klein Healy

One gets the sense from Martina Newberry's poems of a poet that gets distinctive delight in the surprises of sudden and enlightening insight and discovery through the practice of verse. These poems study with unflinching curiosity the peculiar ways and thoughts of modern human society. The end result are well crafted poems that have a disarming emotional honesty that is simply refreshing.--Kwame Dawes