Out of the Underworld

With the poems of Out of the Underworld, Patricia Nelson transports her readers through many realms, from the myths of ancient Greece to tales told by the Tarot. Nelson deftly employs lyric language and assumes personas that immerse us in the “weighted land of words.” Invoking disparate voices, ranging from Dante to e e cummings, Nelson is our steady guide out of the underworld.—Jodi Hottel, author of Voyeur

For all her precision and her perfect ear, the paradox of Patricia Nelson’s poems is in not knowing exactly what they’re about—except that, some¬how, you also do know. You feel what you know about them in a space beyond language, or perhaps just beneath it—exactly, pleasurably, and perfectly. —Meg Scott Copses, Editor, Illuminations.