in my opinion, olena kalytiak davis is the strongest young poet writing today. her poems seem wild and new yet steeped in a grand tradition. in a climate that seems to be veering toward simplicity, workaday speech, and mundanity, davis is fearlessly poetic.

I've never read a poet who writes like Olena Kalytiak Davis. I suppose if some crazy geneticist managed to meld the minds of Poe, Longfellow, Ogden Nash, Dylan Thomas, Gwendolyn Brooks, Stevie Smith, and Sylvia Plath, then a writer similar to Davis might appear, but that's about what it would take.

She uses language unlike anyone else -- as a playground, a laboratory, a room with rubber walls. Her imagery is idiosyncratic, but always powerful, always somehow just right. Her rhythms pull her words to and fro, clattering and clashing together, bouncing off each other, bounding and rebounding across landscapes of dreams and portents. With any other poet, I'd quote some lines, but that wouldn't do Davis justice, for her poems need elbow room and time for their wonders to accumulate. With any other poet, I'd tell you, If you like X, you'll like this one -- but for Davis there is no X. She is her own equation, sui generis.

Few collections of poetry have so much to offer, so much depth and substance, so much sustenance for the reader ready to listen.

Even though I've read Olena Kalytiak Davis' book several times, I am still amazed by the musicality of the poems, her keen observations, and the quiet ferocity of her voice. She is so eloquent, I lose the desire to write. Why bother when she says everything so perfectly? I've given the book to friends and they love it. I hope Davis will write more soon!