Poetry Review: Joy Street by Laura Foley

Paperback: 46 pages
Publisher: Headmistress Press (July 8, 2014)
Genre: poetry

Each poem in this radiantly plainspoken collection offers subtle and penetrating observations that swell to a rich tapestry of ordinary life, beheld from a stance of grace and buoyancy. Starting with intimations of desire in childhood, these poems travel through ordinary domestic scenes to the blessing of a maturity in which the narrator, still embracing desire and wild promise, thrives in the midst of life’s darker gifts. This collection is truly a joy to read. It puts to shame those of us who walk through our days with “the din of loneliness,” ignoring life’s many invitations for bliss. (publisher)

My comments: Through this short book of poems, the author shares her past and her intimate moments with her partner, Clare, who like herself, was once in a traditional marriage. We see a joy even though Clare has been unwell, and her poems of self perception. Their dog and pet is part of this celebration of a relationship.

The author's descriptive phrases also give a wider meaning to her surroundings as seen in these two poems. 

Bay Winds 

Sandy from a day at the beach, 

we sleep on top of our sheets, 

windows open wide, 

little feet running over us. 

Late-Night Low Tide  

Around our feet, 

the scritch-scritch-scratch 

 of claws on sand, 

ancient sounds 

of midnight rounds, 

of seemingly solid ground  

shifting under us: 

revealing worlds below our own. 

I enjoyed the simplicity of the poems, revealing and honest, and Foley's wonderful use of words and imagery.

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About Laura Foley

Laura Foley is the author of four poetry collections.  The Glass Tree won the Foreword Book of the Year Award, Silver, and was a Finalist for the New Hampshire Writer’s Project, Outstanding Book of Poetry. Her poems have appeared in journals and magazines including Valparaiso Poetry Review, Inquiring Mind, Pulse Magazine, Poetry Nook, Lavender Review, and in the anthology, In the Arms of Words: Poems for Disaster Relief.  She won Harpur Palate’s Milton Kessler Memorial Poetry Award and the Grand Prize for theAtlanta Review’s International Poetry Contest. She lives on a woody hill in South Pomfret, Vermont with her partner Clara Gimenez and their three dogs. Please visit her website for book information or more poems: laurafoley.net.

Purchase Links:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Thanks to TLC Book Tours and the author for a review copy of this book.