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Doll God
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Winner in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, Luanne Castle's debut poetry collection, Doll God, studies traces of the spirit world in human-made and natural objects--a Japanese doll, a Palo Verde tree, a hummingbird. Her exploration leads the reader between the twin poles of nature and creations of the imagination in dolls, myth, and art.
From the first poem, which reveal ...more
From the first poem, which reveal ...more
Paperback, 86 pages
Published
January 10th 2015
by Aldrich Press
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Bell, Book & Candle | Doll God Review
This outstanding collection of poems may be a seemingly quick read, but the author invites the reader to partake in the various stages of life: childhood, motherhood etc. The title in itself made me wonder how it tied to the poems - I'm not kidding when I say a lot of these poems involved dolls: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Yet the author also manages to capture the careful balance of human nature and well... actual nature: beauty and decay, violence and ...more
This outstanding collection of poems may be a seemingly quick read, but the author invites the reader to partake in the various stages of life: childhood, motherhood etc. The title in itself made me wonder how it tied to the poems - I'm not kidding when I say a lot of these poems involved dolls: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Yet the author also manages to capture the careful balance of human nature and well... actual nature: beauty and decay, violence and ...more

Luanne Castle's book Doll God Is a mix of wonderful and haunting. Life affirming yet gently stirring you into questioning simple and complex themes. I am savoring it all, Bravo Ms. Castle!
...more

I just finished my second, in-depth reading of DOLL GOD, Luanne Castle’s 2015 collection of poems, and the journey has been vivid, soul-stirring, and potent. A poet and routine reader of poetry, I was nonetheless caught off guard by the precocity of the speakers and the range of subjects. The extraordinary imagery sometimes has the effect of an ambush, and a few times I had to put the book down just to ponder and process my reaction. These poems pack a punch.
For example, “Pastoral,” features the ...more
For example, “Pastoral,” features the ...more

In the realm of the Doll God by Luanne Castle, intention is not limited to the usual actors. Nesting dolls may choose to share Snow White's casket. The old, life-sized toddler doll, denied a little girl's ability to say "No," may force the beholder to read her history in chill, stony eyes ("See how it was for me, my history"). In "A Bone Elegy," a poem that refers to surgery on a "ravenous tumor" on the foot of the poet, a mother's voice is "a clothesline/heavy with soggy laundry" as the poet re
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Doll God, Luanne Castle’s award-winning debut poetry collection, can best be described in terms of the water imagery that appears throughout. Some poems lap at the lakeshore of sensory experience, while others plumb the ocean depths of metaphor.
A prominent theme in the collection is the nature of artistic inspiration, in all its mystery, nuance, and, at times, pain.
“Between the Art and the Muse” presents the muse as a woman engaged in the old-fashioned art of making lace by hand. When the arti ...more
A prominent theme in the collection is the nature of artistic inspiration, in all its mystery, nuance, and, at times, pain.
“Between the Art and the Muse” presents the muse as a woman engaged in the old-fashioned art of making lace by hand. When the arti ...more

When I was in university, I surprised myself by taking a course on Emily Dickinson. I rarely read poetry unless it was assigned reading because I was intimidated by poetry, especially the kind that doesn’t rhyme, that tells it "slant.” I was always afraid I wouldn’t “get” the poem. Yet I took that class because of how Dickinson’s poems made me feel. To quote the poet herself: "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." And that was how I felt after read
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Originally posted at: http://www.peekingbetweenthepages.com...
Doll God by Luanne Castle is a collection of poetry that is haunting and sometimes dark and yet hopeful speaking to your heart and soul. I’m no expert on poetry as most who read my blog know but I’m opening my heart to it and learning to experience it if that makes sense and hopefully others like me will do the same. I’m thoroughly enjoying delving more and more into the beautiful world of poetry.
This collection takes us on a journey ...more
Doll God by Luanne Castle is a collection of poetry that is haunting and sometimes dark and yet hopeful speaking to your heart and soul. I’m no expert on poetry as most who read my blog know but I’m opening my heart to it and learning to experience it if that makes sense and hopefully others like me will do the same. I’m thoroughly enjoying delving more and more into the beautiful world of poetry.
This collection takes us on a journey ...more

Reading--rather-devouring this book by Luanne Castle. The images and what they set in motion inspire a visceral, ground-level plunge into the secrets of things and how things change when left to the elements or are held up to broken or defective mirrors.
Castle's Doll God world is one where the imperfect imagination celebrates its own wonderful and terrifying brokenness in the echoes it finds in motherhood, fertility, destruction, secrets, the making of things, and ultimately in the human desir ...more
Castle's Doll God world is one where the imperfect imagination celebrates its own wonderful and terrifying brokenness in the echoes it finds in motherhood, fertility, destruction, secrets, the making of things, and ultimately in the human desir ...more

Serena Agusto-Cox of Savvy Verse & Wit has started promoting poetry at POETIC BOOK TOURS. The author sent me a copy of the book for review.
it began
a mirror for good
the child's round nose
seed-pearl teeth
doubled by the bundle
she cradled in her
arms, then hung
by one of its
limbs or curved belly...
~~~Prototype, Doll God by Luanne Castle
Title: Doll God
Author: Luanne Castle
ISBN: 978-0692334881
Publisher: Aldrich Press/2015
Pages: 86
With beautiful imagery, softness and at times gut wrenching, this debut ...more
it began
a mirror for good
the child's round nose
seed-pearl teeth
doubled by the bundle
she cradled in her
arms, then hung
by one of its
limbs or curved belly...
~~~Prototype, Doll God by Luanne Castle
Title: Doll God
Author: Luanne Castle
ISBN: 978-0692334881
Publisher: Aldrich Press/2015
Pages: 86
With beautiful imagery, softness and at times gut wrenching, this debut ...more

The title "Doll God" instantly made me wonder who or what the "god" is: a doll, a child, a parent, a poet, a deity, nature? Having read this superb collection, I suspect the answer is all of the above and more. Author Luanne Castle keeps the title's tacit promise by including many poems about dolls--pretty dolls or dolls that are devilish or decaying. But she ranges far beyond dolls into electric seconds between humans or between humans and nature. Castle excels at depicting such moments--beauty
...more

I won this amazing book of poems on Goodreads. I was drawn into this collection of works from the first word. I felt so many things as I read this collection. It is one that I will keep on my night stand for many years to come, so that I can dip in and enjoy these beautiful words and feelings again and again. I highly recommend this book.

This book is a lovely collection of poems, like small gems, evoking the distant past and the not-so-distant. Both nostalgic and current, Luanne Castle's voice is strong as she weaves her truth. I was moved to remember childhood days and toys long forgotten and discarded.
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It was with some trepidation that I began reading Luanne Castle’s collection of poetry. I usually read history and feared I wouldn’t connect with a modern poet, but I was wrong.
Doll God is a lyrical history of life—or many lives. The stories Castle tells us are at once poignantly personal and profoundly universal. A quiet moment with an estranged husband, wistful memories of summers spent with a childhood friend and the sad history of a man’s descent into vagrancy and invisibility; these stories ...more
Doll God is a lyrical history of life—or many lives. The stories Castle tells us are at once poignantly personal and profoundly universal. A quiet moment with an estranged husband, wistful memories of summers spent with a childhood friend and the sad history of a man’s descent into vagrancy and invisibility; these stories ...more

This delightful collection of emotions and images has dolls woven throughout. The variety took me to unfamiliar experiences with the ocean and with the southwest. I especially enjoyed Sonoran October. Also two poems together mentioning the "debris of another generation" and the "sediment of memory." Beautifully wrought.
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Although most reviewers have been pleased with this little volume, I only found a few poems that spoke to me. Again, it is a matter of taste, just like in novels. Or perhaps, I just wasn't in the right mood.
Since all the reviews I read were 4-5 stars, I recommend that you read the poems yourself. The fact that they did not resonate with me is of little importance--they may speak to you.
The Doll God Book Tour
Poetry. 2015. 86 pages. ...more
Since all the reviews I read were 4-5 stars, I recommend that you read the poems yourself. The fact that they did not resonate with me is of little importance--they may speak to you.
The Doll God Book Tour
Poetry. 2015. 86 pages. ...more
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Luanne Castle's Kin Types (Finishing Line Press), a chapbook of poetry and flash nonfiction, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Her first collection of poetry, Doll God, winner of the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Poetry, was published by Aldrich Press. Luanne has been a Fellow at the Center for Ideas and Society at the University of California, Riverside. She studied English and Creati
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