"this poet is tuned in to the idiosyncratic and has something to say about it" - review of Strapless

Susan Tepper wrote a delightful Amazon review of That Strapless Bra in Heaven & here it is, in full: Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2020:

Poet Sarah Sarai knows how to make a line zing, grab your attention, shock you a little or a lot, and make you laugh. All in one stanza. That is no small feat. This poet is very tuned in to the idiosyncratic and has something to say about it. Actually, a lot to say. "My mood is London longing for a blue sky. I take the Hudson River as my lover, / the Southwest as my comforter, Mount Shasta as my tomb. Who wouldn’t want to spend millennia in a fine female breast? …” from her book THAT STRAPLESS BRA IN HEAVEN where life IS a train wreck. But Sarai gets past all that with other train wrecks, from other lives, from history, near and far, from myths and legends, from the wake-up call of a weary friend: “One morning he pulled me aside, to advise I never check myself into Bellevue.” This is poetry on acid with a twist of real. You have to be wide open to rap lines the way Sarai does. The book is lyrical, musical, unforgiving. I’m not suggesting this poet is heartless. Not by any stretch. She just keeps the soft and mushy under wraps, giving us a peek, here and there. Because she’s an original. Very highly recommended.

The Amazon path to That Strapless Bra in Heaven, poems by Sarah Sarai.

Or go to Kelsay Books to order your copy of That Strapless Bra in Heaven, 

poems by Sarah Sarai.

Susan Tepper is author of, most recently, the novel 

What Drives Men (Wilderness House).

photo: The East River. Taken by Sarah Sarai.

Tepper Talk: Susan Tepper Interviews Sarah Sarai

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Berndnaut Smilde

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Berndnaut Smilde

Tepper Talk:

Susan Tepper writes fiction, poetry, interviews, runs readings, posts indefatigably. I was lucky enough to be interviewed by her in late 2016 about Geographies. Here is an excerpt:

In your poem ‘But Then Again’ you also bring up God:
 “… You suspect God’s an / anarchist and admit you / like belief which transforms / you into an arcangel, a / nimbus, the celebrating / Sun. /…”
 Will you talk some about this poem?
 S.S. If anyone wants to read ‘But Then Again’ which was published in Ascent here is the direct link. God? She’s a pretty common character in literature. No reaching deep into classical references there. I had a “moment” late one morning at the Center (LGBT) on 13th Street, in one of their spacious, high-ceilinged rooms with many large windows. The sun poured in through the glass and found me, and I was unable to differentiate between the very real corporeal Sarah Sarai and a self who was a character in a painting by a Renaissance artist, maybe Raphael, of a woman, holy or not, in a nimbus – those luminous clouds engulfing the saints in art. I inwardly narrated the moment, as when Annie Hall steps out of her body to narrate sex. So I felt anointed and was aware I was no more, no less than Sarah Sarai feeling anointed, or being anointed, or imagining myself in a painting at the Met. It stuck with me, that quick and glorious flash-bulb moment. I used it in a poem.

The full interview is here.

***The photos, from a "nimbus photography series," are by Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde. "For his Nimbus photography series, Smilde has created indoor clouds within buildings including the Hotel MariaKapel in the Netherlands and Aspremont-Lynden Castle in Belgium. Smilde's clouds were listed by TIME Magazine as one of the top 10 inventions of 2012."