Tuned Droves
Eric Baus
Octopus Books, 2009
$12.00

Eric Baus’s buzz is the kind that jars the latent sounds of life. The experience of reading Tuned Droves begins as if you’re standing a few feet from a bee hive and proceeds to curl up right inside of it, close as possible to the bees, the tiny hairs on the bees, the little lungs of the bees: “Wake up a little more, Ding. Be still, and hear a bee breathing.” [Dara Cerv]

A Million in Prizes
Justin Marks
New Issues, 2009
$15.00

Justin Marks’s A Million in Prizes communicates with us on the terms we know but cannot speak ourselves. He plucks so clearly from the life that floats perpetually in front of him. The small things are the biggest, the common the extraordinary: “The fact that....there / are no root canals expected makes me smile with all of my soul. / My love is strong and will float atop my chest forevermore.” [Dara Cerv]