You Might Curse Before You Bless

Allie Marini Batts’ artistic path has shot like a meteor in the last several years. She is the most published writer I know. She approaches her art with steadfast commitment; wild imagination; and a prodigious, literary mind steeped in classical literature and popular culture. The result is poetry that bristles with raw heart, startling imagery, and a nurturing and wild love for language. Get ready for these poems, for, as this poet writes in “Hurricane Alicia”: …the great queen is coming, there is blood on her skirts and …you will freeze and drown here, Captain, mark it. Well reader, carefully mark these poems. They are filled with surprises in form and phrasing and in their recognition of messy humanity. They are honest and subtly noble. This is Allie Marini Batts at the start of her hurtling poetic career. She is one upon whom nothing is lost. She will continue to amaze us.

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Praise for You Might Curse Before You Bless

“The speakers in the poems in Allie Marini Batts’ chapbook, “You Might Curse Before You Bless,” offer windows into the tumultuous beauty of the inner psyche. Her speakers struggle in adolescent discovery, failed relationships, domestic dissatisfaction, and nostalgic longings. But in these moments of pathos, there exists also a strength of character, of resilience and triumph.

The imagery ranges from the visually detailed and concrete: “Grams refilled jelly jars with blush wine, / and Marshall’s unfiltered Lucky Strikes / coiled blue as snakes up into the lights” (“Summers, After Supper”) — to wonderfully ethereal and intuitive imaginings: “We fall over tombstones in the darkness, carrying the dead on our backs instead of burying them where they belong” (“Goodbye Horses”). In her command of imagery, the author has the reader in her palm.

The pervading tone is one of wisdom and insight. These are poems that give the reader pause, that demand an inventory of our own desires, disappointments and discoveries. A lovely read from an author new to me, and I look forward to reading more of her work.”

~ Leah Sewell, 2013 ELJ Publications Chapbook Competition Winner

“Man, is she good. Allie Marini Batts writes with a dream-fevered style that is both sharp and poised, and as all great poets should, makes the reader her bitch.”

—Brian A. Ellis

“This collection of poems range from recollections of childhood to marital woes, all with power and poise. Some of the poems in this collection, like “centering” and “Gravewatchers,” seem to falter a bit in the trickery they employ. Batts is at her best when the poems are less intricately wrought, and so the poems that play with language and form tend, to this eye, to work at cross purposes to the personal connection she has with the events and emotions of the poems. However, when Batts eschews these embellishments, and engages in Wordsworth’s “powerful emotion recollected in tranquility” she is undeniably accomplished. Poems like “What You Will Remember” and “Jennifer in Five Acts” recall a past that is chronologically removed, but still salient and powerful. They are past, but very much still present; personal, but also very universal.”

~ C. Sabatelli

About the Author

Allie Marini Batts is an alumna of New College of Florida, meaning she can explain deconstructionism, but cannot perform simple math. Her work has been nominated for the “Best of the Net Award,” as well as the Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in over 200 literary publications that her parents haven’t heard of. Allie lives in Tallahassee with her husband, where she feeds opossums on the porch and rescues tree frogs from the kitchen (they’re very adept at breaking in, it’s the sticky toes). Allie is pursuing her MFA degree in Creative Writing through Antioch University Los Angeles….oh no! It’s getting away! You can find links to Allie’s work at: http://www.kiddeternity.wordpress.com, or visit Bookshelf Bombshells at http://bookshelfbombshells.com

You Might Curse Before You Bless

Praise for You Might Curse Before You Bless

About the Author

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