The Power of Connection: Poetry for Today

Eileen Flaxman's aptly-titled The Power of Connection is far from "only words on a page," as she skillfully asks the reader to consider the age-old questions of life and its meaning. As we read through her "evolved history" we consider "mucky dishes" and "dust under the bed," making spaghetti sauce with her mother-in-law, her parents meeting in heaven, as well as the larger concerns of isolation and connection, love and loss, and holding oneself accountable because "we can only be who we are," and only "understand / [ourselves] in increments." Early in the book, Flaxman tells us "I'm here / I get you" and long before we turn the final page, we know that she does. -Bonnie Wehle, author, A Certain Ache: Poems in Women's Voices and Little AltarsIn What Lies Beneath, Ms. Flaxman's poems about Moby-Dick are filled with depth and philosophy, sailor song and shanty. . . lovely sense of form and rhythm and metrics. Really stunning. And beautifully read. -Dan Beachy-Quick, Guggenheim Fellow and author, Silence and SongIn I've Got Something to Say About Love, the poetry of Valentino is, like love, full of grays. Black or white won't do. As pleasing shades of gray, the insight is that much deeper, the reading that much sweeter. -Mike Granberry, in the L.A. Times