Radial Bloom

by Amy Ratto Parks

Our 2018 Mosaic Novel, this book contains a series of prose poems that spins the tale of a woman haunted by the unloosening tendrils of need and the man she braids from them. Khaty Xiong, author of Poor Anima, "In this verse novel, we follow the bewitching journey of a woman whose life becomes entangled with a visiting ghost. Befriended, loved, and borrowed for his wounds, we traverse, prayer by prayer, along 'the ridgelines, the movement of the stars.' Amy Ratto Parks bestows unto us a body of 'thin air, ' which is, 'any air we fall through, ' where hellish muses, gifts, and otherworldly forces may come before us, troubled and far from sin. In a world teeming with familiar devastations, charted and uncharted, Radial Bloom is a body of dreams, 'blowing smoke into the cold night, blowing...like rescue...like love...[like] the long bell of evening.' As we descend below waters, we are astonished that somewhere in a field of honeysuckle lives a song moored in our hearts -- a song of wrought paradise, 'throwing knives, throwing knives into trees.'"

Genres: Poetry

84 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2018

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and utterly unique lyric novel by Amy Ratto Parks. This is for those who love the language and mystery of poetry, while still moving forward in a story arc that is touching and meditative. Lovely piece of work!