Bold poems of beauty and power.
Bluesy, opinionated, sly, self-chastising and tender, Rhea Tregebov’s All Souls’ commands a range of tones wider and bolder than anything in her previous six books. Inspired by crises both personal (divorce, adult children, aging parents) and societal (global warming, financial implosion), All Souls’ bracingly addresses the quandary at the heart of our present moment: the fear of change and the fear of standing still. Enriched by a sharp palate and crackling with confidence, Tregebov’s new poems capture life in all its rueful aspects, and do so with a lyricism of considerable beauty and power.
praise
“Tregebov’s use of language is effortless, allowing the book to contemplate—sometimes quietly, sometimes more forcefully—the way in which small moments speak to a larger human consciousness.” —Taylor Tower, Maisonneuve, Issue 45 [read full review→]
“Tregebov laments the aging of her parents in a series of poems focused on family dinners, a very effective strategy for exploring the intimacies of relatives over a long period.” —Bert Almon, Montreal Review of Books [read full review→]
“From the deeply personal, Tregebov branches out into poems concerning crises facing society (the subprime mortgage implosion and our chaotic, terror-ridden, seemingly random “undecade”) and the planet (global warming and war). Perhaps the most ambitious poem in the collection is ‘The Gardens of the Antarctic,’ a dense, speculative work about the decadent floral tangle that will take root in the nether regions after global warming and environmental catastrophe have wrought havoc, wiping humans from the planet.” —Brian Campbell, Rover [read full review→]
“Several poems in this skilful collection were so good on first reading that I put the book away for awhile and later returned to see if the same shivers would occur. They did.” —Sue Sorensen, Prairie Fire [read full review→]
“Tregebov has always been a poet’s poet, but never more so than here. Honesty of feeling and honesty of expression are the author’s twin talents.” —George Fetherling, Quill & Quire [read full review→]
