Zephyr

Susan Browne

Poetry $12.00

Praise for Zephyr

"The poems in Susan Browne's Zephyr are grounded in the mysteries of this terribly known, outrageously funny and sad world. With an expert sense of language and narrative, this intrepid poet cranks her highbeams to rummage "humanity's basement, the murk inside the mammalian heart" and unearths each dark, radiant truth." --Dorianne Laux

Again and again Susan Browne's poems sculpt the page and the air, telling us in ways both strange, exuberant and entranced times. How can you resist someone who so freely admits, 'I'm not that good a person / and I know it's true / because I don't feel that bad about it'? Who wishes she were more spiritual, 'but belief is like making your cat / wear a sweater'? I can think of few poets who mine so movingly that dark chasm between pathos and humor, which is where America seems to find itself these days. -- George Bilgere

Susan Browne's Zephyr is an exuberant collection, as entertaining as it is heartfelt. If you think life on earth is absurd, meaningful, unbearably beautiful and downright awful all at once, you've found the right book. Browne is a witty and skillful chronicler of the 'moral ugh' in which 'God is the pizza guy' and 'you're not thankful enough, / you don't put your shoe on your head enough.' I for one am thankful that 'this once world' now contains this fine second collection. I plan to try the shoe thing, too." -- Kim Addonizio

About the Author

Born in Long Beach, California, Susan Browne has lived most of her life in the Bay Area. Her first poetry collection, Buddha's Dogs, won the Four Way Books Intro Prize, selected by Edward Hirsch. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Subtropics, River City, The Mississippi Review, Smartish Pace, and Margie. Her awards include prizes from the Chester H. Jones Foundation, the National Writer's Union, the Los Angeles Poetry Festival, and the River Styx International Poetry contest. She teaches at Diablo Valley College.