Danielle McMahon

@dehm000.bsky.social

632 Followers 1696 Following

EIC @the-engine-idling.bsky.social https://www.d-mcmahon-writes.net author of 4 poetry chapbooks & 2 microchaps latest: rowhouse song (Ghost City Press '25) | irl (Stanchion '26) https://www.stanchionzine.com/product-page/irl

The poems in Kelly R. Samuels’ “The Sailing Place” are pensive, impressionistic, sparse and compact, mirroring the frequently quiet malaise of necessary, domestic life. The voice is tightly measured and contained. The words seem to echo in these small spaces. But cracks in this guarded facade start to appear when routine is broken and the speaker considers the larger, natural world. An appetite for life returns: “The soaking up of.” The speaker’s world expands and brightens; colors reappear. There is a change in tone, however slight, that signals toward a life bubbling just below the surface, a moving past the mundane. I very much enjoyed reading Samuels’ collection and marveled at her masterful voice-control and restraint. These vignettes of a restless soul resonate in their quiet way, and her poetic craft is very apparent. I highly recommend it! Well done!