Melissa Morelli Lacroix crafts poems responding to the complex negotiations of love... A Most Beautiful Deception recounts death and suffering woven through with the irreplaceable moments of life and the sweet sting of memories. Reaching to the early nineteenth century, the poems weave lives of artists, mourners, and admirers while modelling the composers' musical scores in form.... Although emphasizing degeneration and death--physical, social, psychological--the poems maintain vibrancy, often crystallizing sound, light, colour, and emotion.... Despite its complexity and range, Deception is remarkably accessible, managing to humanize musical giants and to harmonize life's glory and brutality while avoiding sentimentalism.
