Cracked Timeless topics of nature, courage and endurance

First book of 108 contemporary poetry authored by Alice Shapiro is receiving rave reviews in the literary world. Cracked was nominated for a GAYA Award (Georgia Author of the Year) and "Usury" from Cracked was nominated for a 2010 Pushcart Prize.If you read the poems of Alice Shapiro with your eyes only, you'll miss one of my favorite the musicality. Look, for example, then listen to these lines from "Behind The Eyes," and you'll see/ hear what I "In a barred prison a bird/ articulates, strange, discrete./ Maples blow beyond./ No branch to perch upon."Besides the hum of those lines, there's the sense of more being said than what's said. In other poems, however, something may be plainly stated but with surround-sound. For instance, in the opening of "Façade," layers of sound echoes lyrically absorb a rather blunt "A diligent syllable, short,/ concise, wet on a blank white/ leaf. Name it wide-winged./ Someone named it pain."Notice the commonality of pain, of course, but notice, too, the precision of word choices in the unusual use of "diligent." What an attentive, conscientious, diligent choice it is for describing a single syllable that describes the one-syllable word pain. Admittedly, a word such as "pulchritude" in another poem might occasionally get in the way of reading, not so much because of the meaning which any dictionary can explain, but because of the inevitable uncertainty about pronunciation and where the word might fit on the musical scale of a line.But forgetting the musicality reawakens the mind to unexpected insights and honest assessments of commonly experienced forms of pain, which Alice addresses head-on. For example, "Vigorous Men" opens with the candid statement, "It is necessary for men to imagine themselves whole." Yes! That's so true of all of us, male or female, and, yes, it's that down-to-earthiness I particularly enjoy and want to hear - like sitting with a close friend over a cup of coffee and talking about whatever is on the heart or mind.Consistently, honest thoughts, musical notes, and illustrations from nature guide the poems "Over the Mississippi" and beyond with such lines as "Once a hand inside a bush/ was caught off-guard by a/ stinging yellow-jacket--/ summer vanished." And isn't that how it is? Doesn't the delight of summer end when someone or something suddenly slaps away its leisurely pleasure with the sting of a yellow jacket, with the snap of a lock on a bird cage, with the close of a book, which, summer or not, makes a "good read."Alice Shapiro’s poems in “Cracked” explore the complex relationships we have as humans to one another, and to the world. With strong images and gripping words, the poems in this book compel us to look at the ordinary and the extraordinary in our own lives. The eloquent use of metaphor in each poem leaves the reader wanting more, turning the page, to find wonderful creativity and surprises in language. The poetry in this collection, does indeed, bring the reader to examine the cracks of our inner and outer worlds. With precision and imagery, the poet finds the waiting spaces inside each of us.--Connie Post Livermore Poet LaureateCracked Stings of the touthfulness or raw observation. Shapiro adventures through the glimpses for friends, strangers, nature, and the pain of those relationships.--B. L. Pawelek.There are one hundred nine poems in this volume and the book is a page turner. I found myself gulping down the words in each of her poems. I read through the volume so quickly, I had to slow myself down and go back and read again....