Curveballs by Jo Ann Smith

Each poem in Curveballs, Jo Ann Smith‘s debut collection, is an invitation to step up to the plate and read the spin. These are tender poems from a self-proclaimed hybrid made from “the fire and water of mismatched people.” Jo Ann Smith offers to hold your hand, find a north star and summon “a renouncement of doubt.”  She writes with clear vision, palpable warmth and skill.

–Les Bernstein, author

In Curveballs Jo Ann Smith’s background as an educator offers her readers insights into different ways of seeing. What one might see as a normal aspect of life, Jo Ann sees as a special occasion for musing on what we are led to see with her.  She is always, it seems, reaching for Polaris, for the True North of her life. “Can you feel what I feel / if I cannot touch your face / in these infected times,” she asks. And she moves easily to art, examining a Picasso vase with unfamiliar insights. And then to the realm of the Orca whale, making connections for herself and us as we track a trail of stars. Jo Ann Smith probes beneath surfaces, revealing everyday situations, relationships, or aspects of nature which move us to the universal, letting us see ourselves in her poems.  In the love poem, “She Brings Rhythm to My Blues,” we see how we can create harmony within our differences. We suggest that you take your time reading these poems, as repeated readings continue to open new vistas.

–fran claggett-holland, writer, teacher, poet

In Curveballs Jo Ann Smith hits it out of the park.  She writes of the self in sun and shadow, in grief and longing with clarity and candor, in language that is strong and authentic. She locates the reader solidly in a keenly observed universe.  She wants us to see and feel it all, the smack of the softball in a well-oiled mitt, the heady smell of heavy wet grass, the silence of stars in a black and infinite sky.  She looks deeply, listens carefully and doesn’t shy from difficult truths or lose sight of the world’s wild blessings.

–Margaret Rooney, poet