Aliesan's "as if it will matter" contained selected poems from 1975 to 1978; "Desire" contains selected poetry from 1978 to 1982. Several of the poems use Native American mythic images: "the hopi spokeswwoman over the telephone / speaks to me low and slowly of prophecy / how a gourd of ashes will drop from the sky".

Aliesan's sparse language is evidenced frequently: "beating / someone pounding on / wood kicking a door down / splintering".

Another solid volume from a consistently solid poet.

Jody Aliesan's poetry builds its force on distilled language and solid imagery. By distilled language, I mean that she cuts any unnecessary word - that every word carries meaning essential to the poem. By solid imagery, I mean imagery that immediately rings true as an image as opposed to images that you must mull over before understanding

This collection includes a wonderful, multipart poem on the war, and the hiding of Jews - " Le Chambon, France". Several of the poems explore human relationships in an confessional poetry still. Other poems depend upon nature and an environmental sense for imagery.

A favorite is part ii "eagles mating" of "three over time"; "we climbed to the top / of a sandstone / cliff lay still / on rough dry grass / they glided / out of dark trees ..."

Any of Jody Aliesan's books are worth reading.

Jody Aliesan's poetry builds its force on distilled language and solid imagery. By distilled language, I mean that she cuts any unnecessary word - that every word carries meaning essential to the poem. By solid imagery, I mean imagery that immediately rings true as an image as opposed to images that you must mull over before understanding.

In Grief Sweat, Jody Aliesan has included prose poems, a form she uses unfrequently - but she easily proves her mastery of the form. The collection includes three Coyote the trickster poems as well as Christian poems on Candlemas and Good Friday. In each of them, the poet writes as one who has fully internalized the images before writing - you never have the feeling of pretention or workshop exercise.

A favorite is "traveler" which begins: " for two nights after you stepped out of time / I set out food and water in my best bowls / left them on stones with sea shells cornmeal / to say goodbye ask guides to lead your feet ...."

This volume contains poems previously reviewed in Desperate for a Clearing, States of Grace, and Doing Least Harm. The latter is also available from Amazon and has a independent review.

As usual, Aliesan's poetry uses words sparsely and carefully, building sharp images which often are natural or mythical. In this volume, she shows herself to be equally at home with the urban and scientific.

The poem she uses as a "forepiece" well illustrates her style: "when the dark birds fly over / we stand and wave our arms / no don't come down here / meanwhile the birds / say look they need us / and we almost flew right by".

The collection ranges over the shroud of Turin, horse training, heart arrhythmia, WW II, a history of Ireland, an urban psalm ... through it all one senses a gentle, socially conscience, spiritual alive poet.

If you enjoy contemporary poetry, Jody Aliesan's work is worth noting.

The sparse language and crisp images of Aliesan's later poetry is already visible in this early work - those less sparse and crisp than her more mature work. This work is less grounded in nature and myth than her later works and, hence, is one of the solid poetry books undistinguished from many others. However, once you've read her later work you'll want to read this.

An example from sutra blues: "coming on with the taste of this ache / i empts me out of detachment / behind the back of the angels"

This book of poetry is graced with line drawings of plant life that complement the texts. The poems in this volume reflect a mind under stress slowly reaching independence. In the title poem, the narrator of the poem identifies herself as "crop-headed woman", "bird-boned hitchhiker", "mountain girl recluse", "minstrel poet". These persona, together with their younger self, reflect the range within which the poetry roams - depending heavily on mythic images, condensed language, and a solid sense of verbal rhythm.