Nurdles and Other Poems by Allison deFreese

The poems of Allison deFreese are kaleidoscopic, prismatic: all that is familiar or ordinary is spun through new tubes of perception and what is humdrum becomes as unforeseen and lovely as slivers of loose, colored glass in light. In these poems guitars are filled with helium, a song is “a whole note floating / like a U.F.O.”, and [in her forthcoming book of flash fiction] the poet herself reincarnates as a cake at a catfish wedding. Of course they are. And of course she does. And if the genius of these poems originates in invention, it culminates in a painstakingly fine-grained artistry. These poems dazzle and blaze.

–Jill Alexander Essbaum, author of Hausfrau and Would-Land

“And an upthrust of feathers / before the downpour” begins Allison deFreese in her book Nurdles and Other Poems. The “downpour” keeps coming in the 21^st century, and also the consolation of essential elements. Rivers, swallows, grass—all these twist among the losses, and the poet finds new ways to understand how language can heal. Don’t miss this book of innovative language and wisdom.

–Denise Low, winner, Red Mountain Press Editor’s Choice Poetry Prize

Allison deFreese’s poems arrive like visionary letters from the pandemic lockdown. Alternately lush, keen-eyed, and exacting, she takes everything in: floods, forest fires, even the “mosquito larvae / twitching / with the moon.” Over and over, she returns us to the natural world with all its questions and consolations. “The sunflower,” she writes, “is already the sun.” Allison deFreese is a singular talent—in her hands, anything is possible.

–Bruce Snider, author of Fruit and The Year We Studied Women