Sad Little Breathing Machine by Matthea HarveyGraywolf Press, 2004

Poems filled with twists of meanings, wordplay that depends on the break of a line (“Little was left of the forest./Large was ten miles ahead.”). Images that resonate (ducks glowing softly in the night, snow falling between trains). Wit and subtlety and a little bit of sadness. As entire pieces, the prose poems are my favorites: they’re fairy tales for a different world, a world askew. In “Baked Alaska, a Theory Of” there are princesses and a king, a castle whose spaces are named for the chambers of the heart; “The Transparent Heir Apparent” features just that. “Save the Originals” is unexpected and perfect, probably my favorite poem in this volume (& to describe it would be to take away the fun).