Proposition at the Walk-In Infinity Chamber is about relationships, decision-making and resilience. Bobbie Lee Lovell freezes time at critical moments and romanticizes her own predicaments to forge connections with readers. Her poems are infused with ekphrastic and speculative elements, and her voice ranges from wistful to brazen.
In poems that are beautifully smart and wondrously sensual, Lovell invites readers into a world of love, loss and possibility. Set against a backdrop of art, science and fairy tale, these poems hang like “little rainbow[s]” in a dark sky. There are risks and safety nets, there are close-calls — too many to count. Yet, Lovell is a poet who “still believes in light,” still believes in the delicious possibility of flight.
–Karla Huston, Wisconsin Poet Laureate 2017-18, author of Grief Bone, Five Oaks Press: 2017 and A Theory of Lipstick, Main Street Rag Publications: 2013
Lovell and her poems scale rocks and hopes. Sometimes she’s dazzling as love’s proposals, “… the words hung in the air / like a little rainbow.” Other times she’s drawn to fall, “… not fathoms / but parsecs … the pull so profound / not even light wants out.” Reading these, you’ll agree, “… you were born / to die climbing — // not mountains, exactly. / They’re just metaphors.”
–Michael Kriesel, 2015 North American Review Hearst Prize winner
Proposition at the Walk-In Infinity Chamber excites me as a poet, editor, and reader of speculative poetry. In particular, I’m a fan of the multi-layerings of meaning, trope and narrative displayed here. The poet’s relationships and severances are presented in science-fiction or fairy-tale contexts, which at the same time that they alienate us with inexpressible distances have the cozy reassurance of our childhood’s fantastic movie matinees. Lovell is in love with the universe, despite its sorrows: “They say it’s just an illusion, / but let’s take our chances.” Proposition is itself a reflective chamber of mirrors turned both inward and outward: “all outcomes reduced to stay or go.” These poems present life as a heroic quest.
–F.J. Bergmann, editor of Star*Line, the journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association; and Mobius: The Journal of Social Change
Mary Strong Jackson (verified owner) –
Bobbie Lee Lovell’s poetry is a flying carpet ride. It zooms with whimsy and humor, but it also lands on solid ground as she writes of the serious topics, of divorce, mortgages, healing, and “the exquisite fantasy of two becoming one.” This collection of work is honest and brave. I sensed myself being carried along from one poem to the next. In “When to Say When” I felt the water rising from, “Never. Not when the first drop pings against your empty cup” and “Not when the level rises to the rim and you’re calculating maximum volume while recklessly anticipating the spill” and “Not when everything you once knew and loved is submerged, not when all you see is an unbroken horizon in every direction, not when you’re forced to choose between sinking or swimming, and not even when you’re drowning”. Her words express power for anyone who has been divorced, and realizes, “But even before/he wouldn’t have been there, /And so, she grieves twice.”
Lovell is a fine poet with a delightful intellect.
Mary Strong Jackson