The First Risk
Poetry has a mystical quality to me. It's so immediate and direct paragraphs of prose metaphor boiled down and simmered into a reduction of thought and expression as colorful as it is delicious. And no meal I've had lately has provided more food for thought than Charles Jensen's incredible collection of poetry. --Jerry Wheeler, Out in PrintI've admired Charles Jensen's poetry in literary journals for years, so it's a real pleasure to have a collection of his work published at last. These poems are simply remarkable, ranging from Matthew Shepherd's death to Alfred Hitchcock and Pedro Almodovar films. Jensen's language is vivid, elegant, adept, and unforgettable. He gives me hope for the future of poetry. --Jeff Mann, award-winning author and poetJensen's poems, with their strong narrative voices and endings like soft crescendos, demand to be heard. --Brent Calderwood for the Lambda Literary Foundation