Intensely Focused

I don't read much poetry, but I enjoyed this collection. At times the themes grew a little repetitive (she looked at a couple of myths over and over again) but there was a very strong feminist element to the poems and I liked that.

The poems about female comic book characters were especially good. The list of everything that has happened to female characters reminds me of this list of homosexual comic book superheroes and what became of them (hint: nothing good).

There were a few poems that really stood out for how deftly Gailey interwove the present with the myth. I'm thinking particularly of the story where the poetess is in class (ancient mythology?) and instructed to write the Philomela/Procne/Tereus myth from Philomela's point of view. Her examination of that myths seems stronger to me than her poems that play with the myth of Persephone, but both tales do get a bit repetitive.

This is a nice, short collection that I think will particularly appeal to women and feminists (of either gender).