On the Desire to Levitate

by Alison Powell

On the Desire to Levitate is the first collection of poems by Alison Powell. This striking collection includes vivid, unflinching meditations on aging, mythology, poetry, and family. In tight, elegant lines that alternate between homage and elegy, these poems explore known subjects with a rebellious eye: a defeated Hercules and a bitter Eurydice, a sympathetic Lucifer, and generations of adolescent girls as mythical adventurers moving within a beloved but confining Midwest. Yet in Powell's skillful hands, hardship never overtakes: as judge Charles Hood writes, “There's often a delicious humor in this work, and always a deep and lasting integrity.”

Winner of the 2013 Hollis Summers Poetry Prize

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2014

Reviews

[MLG · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is gorgeous.

[Nickey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very mixed feelings about this. Some lines/images are sharp and clear and beautiful, others are lost in nebulous, abstract words that don't add up to anything.