A Wreath of Down and Drops of Blood by Allen Braden is a slim collection of poems, published as part of the Virginia Quarterly Review Poetry Series, and is steeped in bird imagery and rural life. His images are at once beautiful and raw, bringing with it the full force of nature’s unbridled beauty and fearsome nature. Even the most beautiful images take on an aggressive persona, like the catalpa petals in “Remembering Precious Landscape, but with an Elegy in Mind” (page 9) that become “splayed.”

On the flip side, nature’s sexuality emerges as the narrator recounts love and precious moments between lovers. In “Flight Theory” (Page 4-7), “How many nights did I try/to retrace the complexities/of starlings with my hands over her skin?/” For this poem alone, the collection is worth buying. The imagery is most vivid and charged here, creating a world that readers can get lost in.

Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2011/11/a-wreath-of-down-and-drops-of-blood-by-allen... ( )