AGAINST WHAT LIGHT by Sunnylyn Thibodeaux, and YOUNG by Christina Fisher

The intimate music that plays
in AGAINST WHAT LIGHT
by Sunnylyn Thibodeaux has
an effortless quality to it,
which is to say it is composed
by finely crafted poems that
reflect a dailiness that not
many poets can capture.
“Capture” isn’t the right word,
since this fleeting recognition
of being in the moment by its
nature requires that you don’t
hold on too tightly to anything except the particular 
awareness that choreographs the dance of the mind 
and the heart:

      Today is Saturday, sky clouded over
      Rain drops waiting for gravity to take them

Some leaps and pirouettes, one ear (one eye) on the daily news,
outside and inside:

      There are fragile things in the sky

      All miners are above ground
      They sent down the Virgin Mary with food

In AGAINST WHAT LIGHT it is the quality of the attention that
matters, one syllable at a time.

There is a similar attention, a similar engagement with the moment, no sooner here than gone, in YOUNG by Christina Fisher.  But this sequence of primarily short poems has an entirely different effect. 

      Everyday another way
      To fuck it up
      Or make it rhyme
            (from “Starter Set”)

Often lines break and twist the moment back upon itself, although 
the sense of timing is impeccable:

      Ya—kinda got that
      Wishing I didn’t
      Miss you
            (from “Intense Aspects”)

Fisher has a great ear, and YOUNG is a solid little collection of
tough tender poems “Not to be remembered and forgot / But
lived through” (from “Rock Star”).

You should be able to get a copy of YOUNG from
Bird & Beckett in San Francisco, since they published it. 

AGAINST WHAT LIGHT was published by, and is available
from, ypolitapress.