Reconnaissance, my newest poetry collection, will be released by Homebound Publications in April. Here is an advanced review by the exceptional poet John Surowiecki:
Looking out a train window, Randall Jarrell saw “the chairs and tables of the world.” The view from Amy Nawrocki’s metaphorical window — and the stuff of her latest book, Reconnaissance — is art, all kinds of art: Rothkos, Sargents, Dalis, tattoos, jazz records, Anaïs Nin, an old copy of Shelley, a statue of FDR. But while the subject matter is certainly interesting, even fascinating, it is Nawrocki’s clear, witty, gem-cut style that’s the book’s real subject. In these poems, a bonsai tree “pretends toward age,” the artwork of Sol Lewitt resists “tremors of an inexact hand,” an X-ray reveals “one of van Gogh’s sunflowers dying inside me, just beneath my ribs.” These are exquisite poems, but not rarified and frail, not afraid of the rougher light of ordinary day. Two poems,“Cimetìere du Père Lachaise” and “The man sitting next to me is reading The Idiot” are alone worth the price of admission. But it’s an elegant, wonderful book, cover to cover.
— John Surowiecki, author of Flies
Click John’s name to find his webpage and link to his works. He’s an amazing poet and I’m honored that he liked my work. I met him at UB’s Necessary Voices lecture where he read his work.
Amy Nawrocki 