Bloom in Reverse

Starred review from March 1, 2014

In language both fierce and lovely (She...knew the names of beautiful things/ to describe the trauma of such a room"), Leo transforms the suicide of a friend and the end of a relationship into something elegiac and moving. Using a sort of reverse chronology, Leo (The Halo Rule) writes poems that begin in loss and death and finish in revival and renewal: "If there are tears in things, / then tonight everything begins and ends// in water." Perhaps the poet needed to reconstruct what was lost in order to make sense of it. And perhaps she needed to control the language and structure as a way of controlling emotion, for while sometimes lines and breaks seem scattered and fragmented, most of the poems are fashioned in couplets or tercets. And perhaps Leo needed to bring light into the lines, to allow the poet and poem a place to breathe once more: "If I could only call up her image/ when I wanted I would.// But she comes and goes/ as she pleases, and won't stop// until she is everything/ that ever came and left at once--." VERDICT This is a deeply meaningful book that has something for all readers. [See "What's Coming for National Poetry Month in April?" Prepub Alert, 11/18/13.]--Karla Huston, Appleton, WI

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