| Reviews of Altars of Ordinary Light
Altars of Ordinary Light, in part, revives powerful memories of a coastal childhood with imagery as sharp as the scent of low tide in a salt marsh. June Sylvester Saraceno focuses a subject, adjusts the light and angle until it reveals what we have been too busy to see -- the eloquence and sanctity of the everyday. These poems nicely balance light and dark, humor and sorrow. In "Scars," she writes: "My body is a book / I reread the lines to find/ the fierce allegory of old adventures." Most of these poems have an urgency, and they compel as adventures do. Altars of Ordinary Light is an impressive debut.
-- Peter Makuck, author of Breaking and Entering, Off Season in the Promised land, Sunken Lightship, Where We Live, and Against Distance.
The title Altars of Ordinary Light is apropos for a book that seeks to shed light on ordinary living -- childhood, family, marriage, womanhood. Saraceno's verse is accessible, yet filled with vivid imagery. Each poem begs to be reread to gain understanding of not only the poet but the reader.
-- Ellen Hopkins, author of Crank, Burned, Impulse, Identical, Tricks, Fallout and more.
In Altars of Ordinary Light June Sylvester Saraceno opens the door to a childhood in a southern, Christian home. Then we see her leave, home first, then marriage, to travel to France, Germany, Vancouver: waiting, waiting. Home again, she hears "You just have to stop thinking about yourself and dance." She does. These are honest, generous poems.
-- Lola Haskins, author of Not Feathers Yet: A Beginner's Guide to the Poetic Life, Solutions Beginning with A, and many collections of poetry including Desire Lines, New and Selected Poems, Extrajera, The Rim Benders Hunger, Forty-Four Ambitions for the Piano and Castings.
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