I’m going to just jump right in without preamble. These poems stand on their own!

The Three Poems by Emily Paige Wilson in Longleaf Revieware thrilling in their use of language, like a trapeze artist making us hold our breath until the triumphant end. I love, love, love how she weaves together herbal lore, earth treasures, and the human body into her verse in the most unexpected ways, especially in “Poet as Doctor (II)”:

Write perfume in cursive until the pneumonia
in your lungs loosens. Thread silver through
your teeth to tempt splinters from your skin.
Dissolve geode into fine grains on your tongue,
swallow to ease the gout out of your teased
and tangled toes.

“Europa” by Echo Wren in Rattlereads like galaxies floating in space – the words a grouping of stars sparkling for our pleasure.

And now the cold of the universe
touches his cheek…