(and Kind Comments About My Books)

Better With Friends book of poetry by Helen Losse

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Kathryn Stripling Byer on My Laureate’s Lasso (scroll down) April 29, 2009

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Sherry Chandler says,

“Helen Losse begins her ten-page ten-part poem “”Where the Reverie is Apt to Lead” with the words:

This isn’t about prayer as such
but concerns the yellow flowers and the barking dog.

The poem is, of course, very much about prayer, and so is Helen’s entire collection Better with Friends (Rank Stranger Press, 2009) in which the poem appears.”

Read the entire review. (August 11, 2009)

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Bruce Lader, author of Landscapes of Longing, says,

“I read your book, Better with Friends, and admire the way you balance strong emotion and perceptive details. The lyrical language has many memorable, moving phrases: ‘..And we who live in her dwindling shadow,’ ‘My sadness has stolen the beauty from the spectrum,’ ‘drink the depth of the city’s drivel,’ ‘The ducks act like vulgar cousins,–only a few instances. The segments “Where the Reverie is Apt to Lead” and “There is a Presence” flow like a Whitmanesque river.”

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Scott Owens in Fall 2009 issue of Main Street Rag

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Nancy Posey on Discriminating Reader

“Helen Losse, the other featured poet, is the poetry editor for online mag, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. I had heard her read before and regularly follow her on Facebook. Her new book, Better with Friends, is prayerful without being religious (or didactic or sanctimonius.) She went on to read poems from her next book.”

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Scott Owens book review in Fall 2009 issue of Main Street Rag

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Scott Whitaker in The Broadkill Review November 2009, page 19

“In the end, Better with Friends, reminds the reader that of the simple truth of friendship, how a touch, or a word given to the dead or poor or unwanted can make things better, if only for a little while.”

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EarthPal, “Better With Friends”

“Helen writes beautifully and has an ability to interpret the world in a lyrical and compassionate way and although her Christian spirituality often comes through in through her writing, it’s not preachy or self-righteous.  It’s gentle, tender and unintrusive.”

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Collin Kelley Modern Confessional December 30, 2009

“Writing in an accessible, narrative style, Losse groups the collection into short sections, with two long poems — “There Is A Presence” and “Where the Reverie is Apt to Lead” — taking up the last quarter of the book. It’s the latter poem that contains the line “This is a poem about living,” which neatly sums up all the work to be found in this thoughtful collection.”

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