Barbra Nightingale's SINGING IN THE KEY OF L is a first rate book, and it's hard to believe that this is only her first full length collection of poetry. Nightingale's voice is original, and her poems are strong. If you're looking for something new and different, buy this book. In fact, buy two and pass one on to a friend. You'll be glad you did.

Bob Zordani Eastern Illinois University

Singing in the Key of L, by Barbra Nightingale, is a collection of poetry that brings us song as well as revelation. With her particular attention to craft and style, Nightingale's sparse, lyrical, and at the same time accessible, voice is that of a bird with a real story to tell. From "A Million Names for Rain," where she questions the accuracy of language: " . . . none of the names for rain/could ever explain/the color of that sky . . ." to "Obsession Between the Sheets," where language becomes tangible, alive: " . . . Do all the words, mashed together/as they are between the sheets, start to mingle/reproducing more and more complications,/like rabbits or fleas hopping about? . . . ," Nightingale dissects again and again what we think we know about meaning. These poems celebrate the unknown as a kind of magic we can approximate only through song. They are emotional without being sentimental. In lusty tones and stark images, Nightingale warbles the imagined into life.

Margo LaGattuta, author of Embracing the Fall, Plain View Press