Ishmael's Violets

The "slobber, lick, smack/lust-gush-gimme" poems in the wonderfully titled Ishmael's Violets by Vivian Eyre sink down down down into the maw and the awe of the marine, whale foremost and last. "Come closer," beckons the sea. "Catalog of Acceptances," "Aquarium" and the sonnet "The Visible Invisibility of Danger" are outstanding in a book chockful of real empathy in murky waters, extending to Fudgie, the ice cream whale who is devoured at Dad's party. A collection to take beachward to await the leviathan-only to discover that he's not coming for you, you're the one who is moved.-Terese Svoboda, author of Dog on Fire and Theatrix: Poetry PlaysFrom the opening line, "Lately I've been practicing to stay," in her stunning collection, Ishmael's Violets, Vivian Eyre plunges us into deep water, deftly balancing hopewith threat. Eyre navigates questions of our capacity for coexistence with other creatures as we voyage with endangered whales, orca marine parks, cold-stunned sea turtles, her own beach musings, the last wish of Rachel Carson, and into the depths of the human heart. "How wide is the circumference of loss" speaks to a mother whale circling the sea while pushing her dead calf, and to larger questions of grief and decimation. Her voice a velvet hammer, Vivian Eyre propels us lyrically and unflinchingly, refusing to screen off the vanishing, urging us to think and to reclaim.-Wendy Drexler, author of Notes from the Column of Memory and Before There Was BeforeIshmael's Violets by Vivian Eyre is an ode to the sea and its majestic creatures-from whales to lobsters to Harpies-and a vivid tableau of maritime life. More importantly, it is also a call to arms. Whether invoking Melville, addressing Rachel Carson, or referencing seafaring history, Eyre's poems-peopled, palpable, vivid, and rich with music-evoke not only coastal culture in all its iterations but catalogue the implications of our heavy human hand. Through ardent observation, Eyre animates and advocates for our interconnectedness with the natural world and our responsibility to caring for it. Compassionate and urgent, Ishmael's Violets is eco-poetry activism at its best.-Tina Cane, author of Body of Work and Year of the Murder Hornet