claire donato

i just read someone else's body, a chapbook from cannibal by claire donato. aside from being weird and smart and funny, claire donato is great at line breaks. each line is a beautiful unit. you can see this best in the first poem, "The Night, What It Allows":

The walls are tearing

  out of their paint.     My legs

  are crossed.     I am not

listening to the TV

in the other room.     I am not

  listening to the television.     The window next

to the television is

  turning away.     The window is

open.     There is a person

outside of it, screaming.  I am lying

  on a television, my eyes are closed,

someone is breaking into my

house: I have always been afraid

of the night, what it allows.     I have

never been afraid of the depth

of your fall: in, on, arms, quarrel,

voice...I am never afraid

to layer my breath over yours--

and when I ask you to plot your anger

on a line, I am referring to fear, how

it is linear: see how mine moves

upward in a diagonal line?

See how it moves up to choose?

Why are you lying in a heap on the floor?

i just typed the whole poem. i didn't plan to do that, i just didn't want to stop. am i in trouble? who cares, do you see what i mean about the line breaks? beautiful.

here is another poem from the chapbook that i love, it is so great:

There are apologies I am too

You can read more poems and buy the book here.