Nancy Richardson's poems concern coming of age in the rust-belt of Ohio during a period of decay of the physical and political structures that made the region once solid and predictable. Her poems chart the shifting of the foundations upon which a life is built and the unpredictability of events that have profound personal and political consequences, including the shootings at Kent State University.
***
[She slid from her bed on the morning of May 4, / chose the bright red blouse for the occasion / of the day of her death (Kent State, 1970)] ***(Finishing Line Press, 12 July 2018, ebook, 120 pages, copy from @PoeticBookTours, and voluntarily reviewed, taking part in the blog tour on 18 August)
***
***
This is my first time reading the poet. I really enjoyed the poems in this collection. I have very specific tastes in poetry, more so than fiction. I'm not a big fan of nature poetry. I prefer poems that are personalised, that focus on experiences, even if tackling big issues. An EveryDay Thing is chock-full of the kind of poems I enjoy the most. The poems are spare, most of them less than a page long. They are more than the sum of their parts. An EveryDay Thing uses vivid images and rich language. I enjoyed every poem and read some several times for sheer pleasure. My favourites are Kent State Trial, Undercover Dates, Locusts, Queen Anne's Lace, Fathers and Shredding.
