Podunk Moon

An Anthology

Poetry - General
268 Pages
Reviewed on 02/24/2018
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Marie-Hélène Fasquel for Readers' Favorite

Podunk Moon: An Anthology, 2016-2003 by Erin Geil is a mind-blowing collection of poems. It consists of different parts, including Acknowledgments which expresses how much being loved and being supported in your dreams by your family and your friends makes creation and creativity possible. We often forget to thank those who have made our success possible and this text is deep as well as essential for readers. The Author’s Note gives the reader more information about the context of the poems: even this part is poetic! Erin states that poetry is made of our deep-felt emotions and of what we have been through in a very interesting, somewhat cynical and heartfelt dedication: “To those of you that I have loved and hated / you remain forever in these pages.” Last but not least, the poems recapture life as it is and life as it is dreamt of, and are followed by an excerpt from “The Great American”.

Podunk Moon by Erin Geil is a fabulous collection of poems which “talked” to my heart directly. I am used to reading poems, analyzing them with my students, and am delighted to have discovered Erin. (I teach American literature and am always on the lookout for new poets and new American writers generally speaking.) Indeed, the poems are deep, clever, and help you ponder what life is all about. What else? I will give you two examples: I particularly appreciated “The Honey Snake” in which beauty, its vanity, its vacuity, life, and death are discussed: “She smiled pretty / And it cost / Her a night / In a room / With the moon / At her back, / And the light / Adding depth that / She did not have.” Understatements, allusions, and rhymes all make this stanza stand out and make it even more powerful. I also selected “I Know” as an illustration of what I mean: “Although I promised / To try to forget / Your face / […] I do recall it. / And now / There you are, / A solid wall / A concrete thing […].” This poem encapsulates everything poetry is about, which is (to me, at the very least) the unsaid, the loss and difficulty to let go, the emotions and feelings transcribed into words and so much more which you will have to discover for yourself… otherwise where would the fun be?