Broadax

by Amy Lawless

Poetry. How do you find your life in the fucked up world? In her essay "The Death of the Moth," Annie Dillard writes "you can't be anything else. You must go at your life with a broadax." In her book, BROADAX, Amy Lawless goes at her life in attempt to understand the pain, to understand how to live in this fucked up world. BROADAX begins in the guileless moments of the poet's childhood and constellates outward, only to return to the same life through adult eyes. After absorbing intimacies in time spent with youth, friends, family, and lovers, witnessing violences like the Oklahoma City bombing in the media, Lawless reflects her sense with the help of The Incredible Hulk, Prince, Zizek, Mishima, and especially her family. When you stub your toe, there is only one word that does the trick. That word is lens, shell, and salve.

Genres: Poetry

131 pages, Paperback

Published October 21, 2017

Reviews

[Meher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poet Amy Lawless has a distinct, clever voice that beams with questions. In Broadax, Lawless doesn't merely trace the memories of embarrassment, love, and shame, but also asks the eternal question I know not how to answer. "How do you persist knowing what you do about yourself."

Consider my heart broken.

P. S. Amy is a friend.

[Maureen Alsop · Rating 5 out of 5]

With a limitless energy, Amy Lawless is brazen in her observations of interpersonal realms. Broadax, in megaphone, amplifies the confessional. This magnification cannot be contained. The poems are meteors as if captured in a multitude of lifetimes.

Read full review at: https://poemeleon.me/truthy-book-reviews

[Ari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I 🖤 LAWLESS