A Theory for What Just Happened

In Laurie Blauner's new book of poetry a sentence attends a dinner party, a parent wishes her teenage daughter would be more afraid, a very human plant is filled with usable light, a ruined forest houses a king and his daughter, men land on the moon, and a war continues without men. Personal, societal, political, and environmental changes develop into warnings, disasters, and mechanical failures. Some examples are "a still life with nervous animals," and "devices meant to resemble our bodies." Something is coming. Then the catastrophes begin. Engagement, surprise, fear, and love (with too many distractions) surface, "...even happy little books leave traces." With compelling, imaginative, and varied language and metaphors a precarious balance between the familiar and unfamiliar is attained. Cliches are overturned, inverted, or made into something new. Blauner writes, "The world looked away from us just when we needed it the most."