PRAISE FOR TAUT CAESURAS
“A caesura is a pause in a line of poetry using the rhythms of natural speech rather than of meter. In Taut Caesuras, Dionne uses pauses to bring home the mighty punches of addiction, of loss, of biological predispositions, and ultimately enlightenment.”
– Sheila Bender, author of A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief
“Part eulogy, part interrogation, in the poems of Taut Caesuras Dionne stares down the familial ravages of mental illness and the fragility of the body. Are our genetics prophecy or opportunity? How much of our suffering is in the mind and in our history? Harnessing the power of multiple poetic forms, Dionne urges the reader to reconsider just how much free will we actually have against the brain’s demands. But more importantly, how do we love well despite ourselves?”
–Lauren Davis, author of Each Wild Thing’s Consent
“The last line of her final poem, Mt. Elinor, could be an epigraph for Pamela Moore Dionne’s entire collection …by the time I reach you/I’ve considered/what I’ve done to save myself.
What Ms. Dionne has done, is place the pickaxe of her intellect and memory into personal experience. The emotions contained within these carefully crafted poems build and infuse this brilliant collection. We climb our way with her through formal sestinas, pantoums, and other verse just skirting the edge of terror and grief. A crown of sonnets details her adored brother’s life and suicide. Another poem describes the birth of a grandchild with a devastating disease. This collection gathers a taut wisdom that is earned through the exploding intellect and tenacious restraint of a survivor. As Dionne says, “Each of us breathes, the now that we are given.” We can all learn and grow from reading these fine poems.”
–Gayle Kaune, author Noise from Stars and All the Birds Awake
In her poem “Pleiades,” Dionne writes,
“We pirouette like comets,
free spiraling through atmospheres
we create and interrupt, leaving shallow
footprints in our wake.”
PRAISE FOR PARADOX & ILLUSION
“To read the poems in Paradox and Illusion is to be swept into such a pirouette and to spiral from what is ordinary into transformative landscapes, sexual energy, even the spheres of the universe, leaving, of course, barely a trace.” – Sheila Bender, author of Behind Us the Way Grows Wider
“Saturating the senses, Paradox and Illusion explores a woman’s marriage to the land, to the beloved, to the intricate and defining patterns of science that we cannot escape. This is a collection of praise measured by grief, as Dionne leads us to the moon, to the earth, and then back to the sky. I would take this journey with her a thousand times.” – Lauren Davis, author of Each Wild Thing’s Consent
“This poet is pulled from the house to confront and experience the world as it is: an endless sky meeting a mountain range, galaxies, bird glimmer, ashes; the mysteries and thrumming of a long marriage. Your moment when it finds you, she tells us, will bring you to your knees, and you feel her authority is well earned. She’s trod the pathless path on her roan. She’s entered the first language of shadow, rain, and bones and returned with stolen fire.” – Kathryn Hunt, author of Long Way Through Ruin