Tiny Teeth: The Wormwood Review Poems

The folks at R.L. Crow Publications, a small press in Penn Valley, are resurrecting some of the best work published in the late and oft-lamented Wormwood Review. If this collection from Sacramento poet Ann Menebroker is any indication, it’s a worthy literary endeavor. Menebroker infuses her spare, muscular poems with a twisted sense of irony and a dry humor that reminds us that life, unlike poetry, ought not to be taken too seriously. For example, in “Chain Letter 1980,” she observes, “Some way to start a Monday, / a prayer and a death threat.” Described as one of the “meat poets,” Menebroker writes love poems memorable for their honesty, as in these lines from “This …”: “the way to stay beautiful / is to avoid mirrors / and look only at those / who truly love back.”