Dazzle

Alison Stone

“With a jeweler’s lapidary skill, Alison Stone has fashioned a string of gemlike poems that indeed (dare I say it?) dazzle—with wisdom, wit, and brio. She’s crafted every line to a high polish, rich in metaphor and music. Wide-ranging in subjects—so much to catch the eye—this book brims with ‘the shimmer, the shiver, the quicksilver / flickers. The sparkle, the dazzle of poetry.’ Readers, enjoy!”

Richard Foerster

This powerful book from award-winning poet Alison Stone delves deeply into human experience. Employing both formal and free verse, these musical poems make the reader feel, think, and ultimately, come away changed from having encountered them.

To each animal its nature. Birds fly,
cats grab things that dangle. Children play. I lie.

You ask for my true, hidden self, your arms
open like wings. To my dismay, I lie.

On a stone-strewn path, I pause and kneel; recite
words of surrender. Even when I pray, I lie.

“Stone is not a ‘literary’ poet (there are enough of them)… She is interested in a woman’s truth, and has something hard won (but won) to give her readers. This is strong poetry.”

Allen Grossman

“Stone offers lean and sparkling poetry that invites us to join with it—poems that are, in their way, multi-faceted spaces to explore, discovering what we may, and grafting what we bring.”

Timothy McLafferty

ISBN 978-0-936481-17-3