What da cover says: Soft Foam is my latest poetry chapbook, published as part of Dusie Kollektiv 4. It includes 16 poems about love, death, past lives, under water insects like Giant Squids and Haunted Sea Urchins, and more. You may also find out more details about it there. Visit Etsy Shop
What I says: The third book of poetry I’ve read by Juliet Cook and this one feels very different to the others, there is a strong rawness to the writing which wasn’t as obvious in the previous books, there is still that dreamlike quality and it still seems to straddle that razor’s edge between life and death.
The opening lines are wonderful, the poet is inside a suitcase with a broken zipper, it deals with the poet’s fear about being muted. A few poems later and more of the poet’s fears are shown as she describes being precariously seated over a tank with a giant squid in it. I particularly liked the 4 part poem “Sink or Float” different perspectives of the same event.
The best part of the book was right at the end, a section called Concept, where Juliet talks about where her mind/life was went she wrote this book. Having this info really opened my eyes about what the poem “Postscript” was all about. Really liked having that addition.
Gnome Appreciation Society 