Review of 'the elephants are asking' by Linda Lerner in Issue 6 of Home Planet News Online at http://homeplanetnews.org/AOnLine.html?fbclid=IwAR2BPyxmtLy-X1J7Nv0LGYy-s0Dx0FleNgHVvLzmLFLqwzI8TJhHMS_AUMo

by Karen Neuberg
Glass Lyre Press LLC, 2018
P.O. Box 2693
Glenview, IL 60025
on line at www.GlassLyre Press.com,
Trade Paperback, 24 pp. $12.00.

Karen Neuberg can “choose not to look” but it’s “impossible (for her) “not to see” what is happening to our planet. And, because of how exquisitely crafted these poems are, with an economy of strong language, she makes us see, and more than that, want to do something about the situation. Moving from a philosophical calm to an enraged outburst --“Now. Dammit!..” The time for “complacency” and “Weeping “is long past.

Neuberg never falls into the easy trap of over explaining; she edges close enough to what the elephants cannot ask to what the reader cannot avoid doing. And, in case we still haven’t gotten the point, lists eleven facts leading to “Thousands killed, millions displaced by storm-caused floods around the globe/ overturning tranquility,” (“Climate Lag Time”) building to the slow nuclear catastrophe seen in: “Perpetuity:” “Whoever remains will hear the stories…”

Her desperation to do something to halt what is happening reaches its strongest emotional pitch in, “If all I have is a teaspoon” to repeatedly fill with water to put out a fire, she’ll do it, to “(Help) the greening to return.”

With the use of the “I—we” in Call to” she is speaking both as herself, and us when she suggests that we must get beyond just coping. Even as she tries to persuade us, Neuberg suspects that we are already there. Now, we just have to, “Dammit” do something.

We can start by getting this book in which what is being said, and the poets use of language and metaphor coalesce to produce an unforgettable collection of poems.

Mini Review of ‘the elephants are asking’ by Alison Ross in Clockwise Cat, Issue 40. 

Eco-conscious poetry often employs a tone that is blatantly in-your-face, ironically blunting an otherwise dire supplication. It seems the more urgent the message, the less alarmist the tone needs to be in order to hold captive our hearts and minds. Or, at least that’s what I’ve learned from reading Karen Neuberg’s slender tome of verse in which she entreats, in euphonious tones, for us to shuffle off our complacency and stand as sentinels of our ever-eroding natural environment. After all, “weeping is not sufficient.” The most quietly indignant poem in the collection, “Perpetuity,” in which radiated water poisons the planet, censures humanity with the elegantly damning lines, “the fish have not been told/Nor the birds warned.” Elsewhere in “Old Game,” children of the future invoke an incantation about creatures lost so callously to a ravaged climate. This is how you do eco-conscious poetry: you startle with understated language and implore with imagery that compels even the most lethargic to answer the elephants’ pleas with loving and active affirmation.

To read this and other reviews as well as excellent writing and art, go to 

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/62321057/clockwise-cat-issue-40

I am so honored to be included in Poetrybay's "19 for '19: Big Voices From Places Small and Large" with a mini-review:

KAREN NEUBERG, THE ELEPHANTS ARE ASKING

In the most delicate of voices, with beautiful imagery, the question is asked -- why are we ignoring climate change? Are we just too numb? Too otherwise entertained? Too unaffected directly? Why are we not, at least, looking at the problem? Poem after poem in this chapbook holds up a different facet of this question. And this is not a preachy speaker, but rather a member of humankind trying to understand our collective behavior. This is an effective and necessary chapbook as the question grows more urgent day by hurricane and wildfire day. This is a chapbook you will not soon forget. (Francine Witte)

For complete list go to:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/poetrybay/19-for-19-big-voices-from-places-small-and-large/2129051537145783/

the elephants are asking

is now available from Glass Lyre Press at
https://glass-lyre-press.myshopify.com/collections/chapbooks/products/the-elephants-are-asking

Coming early 2018, my latest chapbook, the elephants are asking, from Glass Lyre Press

How to order Myself Taking Stage

As of September 1, 2016, "Myself Taking Stage" can be ordered from Finishing Line Press at https://finishinglinepress.com/product_info.php?cPath=4&products_id=2025

"Detailed Still" can be ordered from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0981767869/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

and from Poets Wear Prada through Create Space at https://www.createspace.com/3476085

Thank you for your interest!

Myself Taking Stage - New chapbook on Pre-order from Finishing Line Press

Excited to announce my poetry chapbook, Myself Taking Stage, is now available for pre-order from Finishing Line Press! 

https://finishinglinepress.com/product_info.php?cPath=4&products_id=2025