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Exothermic Reaction -
Sonnets
By Beth Houston
Published by NightHawk Books
ISBN 09719190-2-x ($15.00)
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If Gerald Manley Hopkins
had been a passionate scientist instead of a priest,
his poems might have been like these, steeped
in both inquiry sensual pleasure from the "Slow,
brutish thrust of evolution" to "history's
settled scores," Beth Houston's 200 sonnets
bring us close to the riddle of Creation.
— David Mason
The 200 sonnets of Exothermic
Reaction are a creative feat. In a fixed form
that contemporary poets use for occasional exercises,
Beth Houston has realized an opportunity for brilliant
invention, rich variations of rhyme, rhythm, subject
and insight. Each work is a fresh experience.
— Walter Cummings, Editor, The Literary
Review
"At times life loses
its solidity," Beth Houston writes but everywhere
she turns in this startling book of sonnets, she
finds the means to whip it into shape. Endlessly
inventive in its send-ups of sex and religion,
myth and the art, Exothermic Reaction breathes
new heat into one of the oldest of forms. These
sonnets shoot sparks.
— Dan Bellm
The sonnet is Beth Houston's
favorite verse form and she crafts each one masterfully.
She is a favorite at Able Muse Review where, as
its first featured poet, her poetry is emblazoned
in our cyber halls. And she's also the contributor
of the first and only electronic book of poetry
worth its electrons. The release of Houston's
first sonnet collection is an event worth celebrating.
— Alex Pepple, Editor, Able Muse Review
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Angels in Exile
By Beth Houston
Published by NightHawk Books
ISBN 09719190-1-1 ($12.00)
The theme of
this unflinchingly physical and metaphysical book
is the spirit in matter, and the matter in spirit
— the wry and sorrowful and comforting evidence
of God the "Blood Angel," who "touches
me through the things of this world." In Angels
in Exile, Beth Houston makes the unending claims
of doubt and devotion come tangibly to life.
— Dan Bellm
Reading Beth Houston's
poems, we are in the hands of a fervent investigator,
one who would know what makes "blue blue
rather than G-flat, and love love instead of fear
/ or disgust or dead lilies.... "This is
a poetry of surprising connections and cross-fertilizations,
from Shiva to Kierkegaard. Her mind makes music
of ideas precisely because she feels them so intensely,
with such irreverent reverence.
— David Mason
The power of Beth Houston's
poems transcends her startling observations of
the thins of this world to reveal their tangible
connections with the infinite, "our longing
for what's most deeply alive." She achieves
the goals of the speaker of "Photograph":
"I want you to feel. / Physical, yes, but
spiritual, absolute." She is a uniquely spiritual
poet.
— Walter Cummins, Editor, The Literary
Review
What savory dishes Houston
serves up — these helping of dense, rich
language everywhere informed by the poet's first
rate ear, intellect and love of pure sensation.
These offerings crackle, licked by flame. In lines
like this the image goes down dreamily but the
play of consonants gives off sparks: "The
only hint of motion, the moon's slipping out from
behind the scent of a branch, lit up like the
glance of a woman in love too shy to speak. "These
generous and abundantly rewarding poems seem to
have poured froth from an almost uncontainable
talent.
— Suzanne Lummis
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