EXCERPT FROM REVIEW OF LOVELY DAUGHTER OF THE SHATTERING BY CAROLE MERTZ

“Child” (16), nevertheless, sears through a violent scene and shows us that, by decision, the mother will prevail.
So, my precious child, rail on.
I will survive the choking doubt that sends me down
this slope of pain, that rounds my shoulders
as I lightly pat for broken glass.
I will hold fast.

Read more:
momeggreview.com/2019/04/25/lovely-daughter-of-the-shattering-by-patrice-boyer-claeys/

EXCERPT FROM REVIEW OF LOVELY DAUGHTER OF THE SHATTERING BY SURY GOSCH

Claeys takes us on a mesmerizing journey of parenting a child with mental illness, describing the first love of a mother and her child at the adopting agency — “We’re in this thing like leaves, like sandwich halves. Neither of us live without the other” — through the time when the mother now witnesses her daughter becoming a teenage parent. The mother affectionately observes her teenage daughter as the latter tends to her son: “She dresses him with care, cuing the blue of his sleeper to the flecks on her acrylic nails — as if they’re off to a photo shoot instead of the sofa.”

Read more:  trampset.org/book-review-lovely-daughter-of-the-shattering-eea8775437d7

EXCERPT FROM REVIEW OF LOVELY DAUGHTER OF THE SHATTERING BY SHERRY SMITH

And then there are the eleven lovely centos, lines adopted from other poets, yet resonant with the voice of this poet. Perhaps they are a metaphor for this blended family forged by choice, not birth, and being fraught with seeking balance in honoring the original poetry and finding one's own way.  Adrienne Rich said, "Poems are like dreams: in them you put what you don't know."

Read more:  rhinopoetry.org/reviews/lovely-daughter-of-the-shattering-by-patrice-boyer-claeys-reviewed-by-sherry-smith