Two New Customer Reviews at Amazon

Falling off the canvas into impeccablely crafted conceits, February 25, 2008
By John S. Vick "ilikevangogh" (Minneapolis, MN USA) -


"The reclining nude is absent. / Diego claims she stepped off the canvas / while he napped. I told him / how a woman needs to be treated." So it is not so much the common, the banality of this poet's relationships so much like ours, but the remarkableness of stepping out and looking back on the quotidian and saying it was like "this," specifically. Pupek frequently steps off the canvas in Forms of Intercession, and even in the most tenuous of tangential leaps into touches of Simic-like surrealities, she sustains the conceits and metaphor which bind these poems together so delectably accomplished, so excellently resolved, and beautiful crafted overall. Pupek has a monument with this offering and it will sit on many bookshelves proudly, more often than likely open on a sofa, a side table somewhere interesting. Any intriguing stimuli around us in a room with Pupek's work stands secondary. All of the stimulating knick knacks of intellectual pleasure sit squarely in this revelatory book. Kudos to Pupek for this most compelling work.



Forms of Intercession, February 25, 2008
By Brenda N. Cook (Texas) -

Jayne Pupek is a word artist, her book Forms of Intercession a masterpiece filled with poems that paint images in your mind that take flight to sear your heart. She is fearless in her choice of topics and she exhibits incredible emotional bravery. From page one she has a take no prisoner; offers no apologies attitude. It is this bravery coupled with her incredible resiliency of spirit that reaches out of the page and grabs you from her very first poem, to her very last poem. In one poem Pupek writes, Sometimes you must intercede on your own behalf. I'm spreading tarot cards on the ground and tossing out the ones that land upside down. Pupek's words challenge me to go outside and toss cards in the wind, she is a writer who is in complete possession of her own wilderness and lucky for us, she is willing to share. It is this quality that will have me read again and again. Congratulations to Pupek for an outstanding debut.