Book: Streaming
Poet: Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
Publisher/Date: Coffee House Press, 2014
Why I bought the book: Wandering around the book fair at AWP, I was perusing the Coffee House Press table and the cover of this book caught my eye because it’s gorgeous. When I picked up the book, i opened it to the poem “Drunk Butterflies” and then I turned around and bought the book.
What I admire about this collection: The poems in Streaming sprawl. They are large and ambitious and full of breath. There is just so much space and that space is full of layers upon layers of language. These are poems that are about the intersection between family and history and the environment. I greatly admire Allison Adelle Hedge Coke’s ability to tackle large social and cultural issues in poems in a way that is still deeply lyrical and lovely. These poems you should linger over on your porch in the morning with a cup of coffee.
Favorite lines: “In this world we lose/the ones who give the most” (28). “Wrapping shyness with wing, undercover, under/folding blanket over love” (11). “Sandhill cranes rise into spiraled kettles; their mares purring chortling kettling/vortex siege/sedge herd” (18).
Favorite poems: “Drunk Butterflies,” “Platte Mares,” Heroes,” “Pando/Pando,” “Story,” “Campos,” “Hatchlings,” “Carcass.”
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Brianna Pike 
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