COLLATERAL LIGHT, by Julia Cohen

Julia Cohen's Collateral Light (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2013) reminds me of peering through my fist at the surface of the St. Lawrence River as a kid, and this surf-rock song about death.

DINNER POEMS, by Amanda Montei and Jon Rutzmoser

Dinner Poems (Bon Aire Projects, 2013) reminds me of playing with the beat-up Rubic's Cube that was missing a few colors at my grandmother's house and having a conversation about my sex life across the aisle of the F train.

HOLD IT DOWN, by Gina Myers

Gina Myers' Hold It Down reminds me of Social Distortion-era Mike Ness, the greasy carpet in my first Buffalo apartment, and the time my father shot a .44 magnum into a swimming pool in a celebratory gesture.

Echo Regime

John Olson's Echo Regime (Black Square Editions, 2000) reminds me of Joseph Cornell's surrealist dioramas. (For more Cornell images, visit: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cornell/)

The Devotional Poems

Joe Hall's The Devotional Poems reminds me of Pedro the Lion's "Rejoice."

Wouldn't it be wonderful

if everything were meaningless?

But everything is so meaningful

and most everything turns to shit.

Rejoice.