Personal Effects

by Robin Becker

“Robin Becker’s first collection of poems show a controlled ironic intelligence and a steadfastness of vision. The grandmother poems, the self as child, the self as adult female, the poems of travel and search all reflect her clear unafraid image in the mirror.” —Maxine Kumin “These poems radiate a sexual heat…They are about status, loss and grief out there…where life is crazy and hard, where we live and try to address new loves and ancient urges against stunning odds. Helena Minton has beaten the percentages in these poems and prepared a place for us to inhabit.” —J.D. Reed “Marilyn Zuckerman’s poems are the first utterings of an urgent voice, compelled to speak by a force and with such force that I am tempted to use the word ‘possessed’…These are roadsigns along some highway that sears the countryside…Where they are going I cannot tell, but they are and it is somewhere unheard of” —Louise Bernikow from Alice James