Swamp Lily, Lake Charles, Louisiana (Photo: Jan Rider Newman)
I don’t write reviews often, but I was honored last summer when Swamp Lily Review asked me to do this for the newest volume by Louisiana’s newest poet laureate, Ava Leavell Haymon: Eldest Daughter. This is a collection well worth investigating, and the poems will echo in me a long time.
If you click HERE and scroll down, you will find my bio and a link to the review I wrote, as well as see all the exciting new work by ten contributors: poems, fiction, and reviews. You can also check out the archived editions of past issues of Swamp Lily Review.
I would also like to urge you to visit Ava Leavell Haymon’s website. If you look under “Media” you’ll find a really good video of her reading some of the poems from Eldest Daughter.
I appreciate that, Doug!
Beautiful review, Leslie!
Ava,
It is wonderful to hear from you. Your poems are astonishing, not only in their beauty but in their sanity and strength. My hope is that they get the recognition and wide reading they deserve. I believe that art not only enhances lives but also saves them. Your work (as I see it) stands in that tradition. It makes me very happy that the review did not miss the mark. Thank you so much for letting me know your thoughts. Leslie
Leslie – Many many thanks for the beautiful and astonishing review. I read some of it in tears. I can’t take in the praise (yet), but I want you to know that I feel understood. And that’s a very rare assurance for an incest survivor. The taboo still exists (I can tell that you know that), and when I talk about it, the listener or reader does not know how to reply. Makes for many hours of loneliness. You assuage this. In deep gratitude, Ava
What a wonderful analysis. I think that you did a super job of
getting to the heart of the book. Congratulations and hope that
you might get a few more jobs at reviewing.
Love and WARM WISHES, Mom
Yes, it is. The book revealed many layers–the more I looked, the more I saw. Just what I want in a collection of poetry.
What a great review!! Is it the same collection that you showed me in August?