BOOKS – Jane Alynn

Poetry

Published by Cherry Grove Collections
P.O. Box 541106
Cincinnati, OH 45254-1106

ISBN: 9781936370450
LCCN: 2011935272

What others have said:

Song, flight, a glimpse of divinity: birds stitch the recurring threads of Jane Alynn’s artful Necessity of Flight.

“Jane Alynn offers what we expect of our finest poets: language that glows with intelligence, images that build layered regions of emotion and sequences that are models of human experience. What could be better than: ‘The mind a mere immensity of nothing,’ or ‘the blunder of unearned godliness.’” —Jame Bertolino, author of Finding Water, Holding Stone.

“Jane Alynn’s first book, Necessity of Flight, is wonderfully inhabited by birds, flowers, food and family. As she says in her beautiful final poem ‘Chuckanut Drive in Winer’ she goes ‘slowly to see things clearly.’ And her poems prove it. Full of careful observation and lush description, they walk at the boundaries: between nature and the human world; between human and human. They’ve left me richer for having read them.” —Patricia Fargnoli

“Reader, I trust these poems. Jane Alynn transforms lived experience into the natural realm of wonder. With honest insight, Necessity of Flight allows us moments of true pleasure. In these pages, house cats become ‘two purses in the window seat’ and the Roguosa rose is seen as ‘shaggy, with unkempt habits.’ But what I admire most in this book are the marriage poems. With an unflinching eye, the speaker watches as two trapeze artists stand in for a couple’s real life struggles. ‘I go slow along this road to see things clearly,’ Alynn informs us. How lucky we are for this invitation to travel with her. A fine debut.” —Susan Rich

“At the heart of Jane Alynn’s Necessity of Flight is a profound reverence for and kinship with the natural world. The point of view of this stunning first full-length collection is one of wonder and continual discovery, From ‘the cloudburst of starlings’ to ’the bluest silence’ the language is balanced and beautiful. Truly breathtaking turns of phrases abound throughout, but Alynn is an extraordinary master of the last line. Here’s just one example, from ‘Small Gods’: ‘And for a little while at least, she renews my faith / in a life of radiant poverty.’ Like the ‘strangely woven curtain / elaborately spun of threads and dust’ from the poem ‘House Spider,’ Alynn’s Necessity of Flight is taut, enchanting, and fully glistening.” —Lana Hechtman Ayers

Published by Cherry Grove Collections (2011)

Published by Finishing Line Press (2005)