A review by gsheffy
Distant Mandate: Poems by Ange Mlinko

I'm not an "advanced" reader of poetry (though definitely not an amateur either,) but these poems' meanings consistently eluded me. They were pretty--in the sense that the rhymes and the lines flowed so beautifully. I imagine these poems would sound wonderful read-aloud. However, they tended to be unapproachable and frustrating to read, especially given the number of unnecessarily obscure words that interrupted the flow of the poems. I loved the imagery, but nothing I read will thematically stick with me (and I can't say whether that's the fault of the diction or my own ignorance.)