Park Quest

by Patricia Cherin. 38 pages. Doom-Ah Books, 5710 E. 7th Street Suite No 283, Long Beach, CA. 90803

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So I began to read the first poem in this book, A Leonine Maternity, about how the poet is like a ma lion and it goes along about cubs and mothering and such and then the last line, ‘my pride my prey.’ And then trapped I fell into the poems, yes the pun but the shock of understanding that a child is prey as well as pride, is insight, insight rocks the firmly grounded, elegantly composed poems in this volume. Cherin taps a vast horizon of emotions and notions and ideas in her poems. This mature book of well-pondered poems is like a box of fancy chocolate fills. No this isn’t no small press bag of salted peanuts. But don’t imagine that this is some academic’s exercise. The fearless poems ring clear with the daily-ness of a poet in the middle of her experience of life. My favorite, a poem called Color Coded. It is about, mammals and their ability to see color…the colors of ripe fruit…and in Cherin fashion twist, the fruit, well it is you and I and Yikes! with shocking insight she writes: we know on cue/ when we see/ what we plan to devour.

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