"Kathy Fagan's The Charm works the true spells of childhood, the superstitions of romance, the bewitching alchemies of words themselves and casts us sun-struck in our lives--doomed, yes, but 'dovewinged.' Fact, speculation, nostalgia, and mystery are wielded with equal power and stunning craft. Fagan is writing some of the wisest and alluring poems of our day." -Beckian Fritz Goldberg "There is something both very old and very new--archaic and postmodern--in Kathy Fagan's wise-cracking charms to assuage rage and despair, to ward off misfortune and heartbreak. The Charm dissolves the leaden circles in the air and charms with fresh carols." -Edward Hirsch "Kathy Fagan's rage is subtle, her loves draw you in, and there is a driving curiosity that comes only with great respect for life." -Bob Hicok Kathy Fagan is the author of Lip, Moving & St Rage , winner of the Vassar Miller Prize for Poetry, and The Raft , a National Poetry Series selection. She is professor of English at Ohio State University.
My favourite poems in the collection are 'Alas, My Heart, If I Could Bare/ My Heart...', 'Great Poets Steal', 'Misfortune Cookies', 'Invective', 'Letter from the Garden', and especially 'Laine et Soie'.