I don’t have much time to read right now, but I never miss this blog, written by poet and teacher Martin Achatz, also known as Saint Marty. He is a saint to me because he reviewed my books Beauty Lessons and Flame with eloquence and kindness, sharing three of my poems with his readers. Here are excerpts followed by links to his full posts.
Flame
“Godbey is fearless, taking the ugly aspects of a life and searching them for beauty. Her verse is full of light and heat, soot and cold. Her lines connect on a level deep as the San Andreas, where all of us groan and split against the shifting plates of the heart. Flame is hot. It burns the fingers, scalds the tongue. And it leaves afterimages, bright ghosts that hover in the corners of memory.” Read more…
Beauty Lessons
”Beauty Lessons is a stunning collection, full of the pain of childhood, the wars of adult life. Literally, some of the poems in this collection take my breath away. Mostly narrative, these poems tell stories of growing up, of learning what it takes to move from girlhood to womanhood. At times, the poems are wistful. At times, the poems are brutal. Always, the poems connect the reader to the fragile tapestry of human existence. Through her work, Godbey reminds us of our common need for connection and love, and the terrible/wonderful cost of that connection.” Read more…
