Deep Camouflage

Amy Saul-Zerby (Goodreads Author)

it was amazing 5.00 · Rating details · 16 ratings · 5 reviews

"Amy Saul-Zerby’s second poetry collection is a fractured, lyric fairytale that reminds us that stories are both real and not real. The contemporary idea of self-determination is still ‘some pink riddle, all edges still.’ The poetic voice in Deep Camouflage is blended with its surroundings—because it wishes to do no harm. Yet it winks at you, sharing a private benediction "Amy Saul-Zerby’s second poetry collection is a fractured, lyric fairytale that reminds us that stories are both real and not real. The contemporary idea of self-determination is still ‘some pink riddle, all edges still.’ The poetic voice in Deep Camouflage is blended with its surroundings—because it wishes to do no harm. Yet it winks at you, sharing a private benediction for invisible, discarded selves. You are never more beautiful than when you are floating, seeing and unseen. These poems tie a wedding knot around longing and loss, art and artifice. Though we are always disappearing, we are not forgotten."
—Monica McClure, author of Tender Data

"Deep Camouflage is here to reclaim the woman scorned. Amy Saul-Zerby’s second poetry collection takes a sharp scalpel to the gendered expectations and emotional inequalities that shape romance and its breakdowns, railing against the kind of love that looks like a woman in orbit—that makes her make herself small. By turns stunningly vulnerable and wryly funny (‘when god closes a door / he opens a window // and i’m like / who cares’), Saul-Zerby captures a particular kind of twenty-first-century despair that’s tinged with optimism despite itself, like an inflatable pool swan in a hurricane. These poems stake out a self-conscious search for ‘the point’ of intimacy when it is tethered to individual perceptions, warning an estranged ‘you’ that ‘i’m not sure who told you / that everyone’s truth / was equally deserving / of respect // but it wasn’t me.’ Saul-Zerby is unafraid to roll around in the absurdity of fantasy and all-consuming desire at the same time that she reveals their manipulative, trauma-laced undersides. ‘If we are going down,’ Deep Camouflage says, ‘we better / go all the way fucking down.’ At the bottom of this deep-earth excavation, though, there is room to breathe—even, mercifully, to laugh.'"
—Liz Bowen, author of Sugarblood

"Amy Saul-Zerby studies feelings. The feelings no one wants discussed in public. A psychologist studies human behavior, a sociologist studies human behavior in groups, the poet studies feelings. A true poet views feelings as real living things, as real as chairs, microwaves, canyons and rivers. There are few poets, because few of us, want to investigate the intimacies of ourselves. I can see Amy Saul-Zerby walking the streets of Philadelphia in winter, wearing a big coat, hat, gloves and scarf. She is holding a cup of coffee, then, suddenly, a feeling arises in her, she embraces it, puts her hand to her chest and tries to understand the unique flavor of the emotion. As she stands there, the world of people walk, cars pass, lights turn from red to green. Everyone busy, going places, but the poet, stands among all of it, in their sense of time, in their own special poet world. Amy Saul-Zerby is a true poet, she takes the unintelligible feelings we all have, and has given them language."
—Noah Cicero, author of Nature Documentary ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, 118 pages

Published January 29th 2018 by Civil Coping Mechanisms

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Deep Camouflage, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Deep Camouflage

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

it was amazing Average rating 5.00 ·

Rating details

· 16 ratings · 5 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Deep Camouflage

Mar 29, 2018 Lauren Dostal rated it it was amazing

Shelves: independants, poetry, desert-island-favorites

“you could tear me down and
i would probably blame the sun

before i would hold it against you.

the sun is me in this metaphor.”

So good I live tweeted my way through it. No, like, seriously. It’s rare that I get so absorbed in a collection that I feel compelled to read it straight through from cover to cover, but this book has that magical blend of relatable, gut-punch, honest emotion and sharp yet subtle language that burrows itself into your heart. The collection reads like a journey through love ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Oct 11, 2018 Michael rated it it was amazing

Enjoyed reading this on a rainy night. Flowed with a mercy full of meaning. The poetry in this collection swirls and spirals and shimmers with intimate observations. Sometimes a bleak sense of humor, a scoff at the world. I liked it. Sound and vision--images with voice--create a narrative of a soul allowing us into a confession with pride and unapologetic honesty.

Here are some of the ones that broke into my own heart:

"are there people who just let things happen without panickimg (& if so, how d ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 25, 2018 Alejandro Morales rated it it was amazing

I loved this book. Each poem was a wonderful reading experience, being at once hard but inspiring. I could easily read these poems many times, they are truly poetry, contemporary poetry at its best. My favourite book of 2018 so far.

flag Like · see review