The Tulip-Flame (New Poetry)
Starred Review. Graceful and quiet, Honum’s stunning debut moves like a ballet dancer: light and deliberate, even when in pain. Here, pain takes center stage, laid bare in the opening poem: “Mother tried to take her life.” … Despite the long shadow death casts, the book bursts with new growth, where “Out of the light’s loose skin/ trumpet-flowers formed.” To Honum, perhaps nature’s presence is evidence enough that we haven’t been left alone: “Tonight, it crosses my mind/ how gone you are, and stars,/ if stars say anything, say Otherwise.” (Apr)