These vivacious poems tumble off the page with a rhythmic fluidity that wraps around your mind while at the same time prompting you to pause and ponder their meaning.

Several of the poems examine hardship and mental illness with eloquent compassion. In “to operate, pull pin,” Graves writes:

"and this is how
rachel goes crazy:

she can’t see right,
and everything speaks to her:
the lamppost, the table,
small gnomes at restaurants

and she is never calm.”

All the poems, in different ways, embrace life’s imperfections with childlike openness and enthusiasm, yet are seasoned with a maturity that lies just under the surface, lending a depth that makes the collection both thought-provoking and uplifting at the same time.

In “reparations for a fracture,” Graves perhaps offers us a glimpse of her own worldview in the line, “hello. i said, the world is a lustry vagrant and i’m traveling on it.”

Ballad of the Breathless, by Emily Graves, is published by Spout Press.

--SP

This review, along with Learning the Art of Motion, a poem by Emily Graves included in this book, is from the spring issue of MOQ. Find out more about this issue of MOQ, including how you can get a copy, here.