Richard Siken's War of the Foxes (Copper Canyon) and Amy Gerstler's Scattered at Sea (Penguin) are both intense, well written books. The latter begins: "What to do with gazillions of factoids accumulating in the Age of the Internet? A Shakespearean sonnet cannot present Facebook news feed in a mere 14 lines. Or can it? Poet Amy Gerstler, winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry, has found a way to celebrate the infinite branching of knowledge. She collages it in exuberant, endless scrapbooks interspersed with her own life story. She makes rich poetry. Divisions in the book are “Kissing,” “Womanish,” “Dust of Heirs, Dust of Ancestors,” “What I Did With Your Ashes” and “Only at Certain Sacred Locations.” The last considers reincarnation and the journeys of “A Terribly Sentimental Fork,” among other surprises. Each of Gerstler’s poems has a personal voice, overlaid with a Babel of images." See more of my reviews at:
http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/books/article25366783.html
