Title: We are traveling through dark at tremendous speeds
Publisher: Lit Fest Press
Author: Sarah Sadie
Pages: 76 pp
Price: $15.00 (paperback)

“It’s not the blank page that scares me, it’s the blank behind the page.”

Sadie’s latest collection of poetry is a celebration of both the natural world, and the mundane moments which hold the true magic and wonder of life. It is an experimental work, allowing Sadie and her publisher to play with words and paper and book, creating something wholly unique.

For example, the title page includes a mirror image of itself, creating a disorienting sensation. The book then moves into five sections, but out-of-context text — telling a completely separate poem — runs along the bottom, linking the sections while inviting the reader to go back and start from the beginning to read just that one poem. Additionally, “Love in the Season of Great Horned Owls” is retold three different times, each retelling distinct.

There are only a few poems which draw upon mythology (and might be considered explicitly Pagan or polytheist); for example, “The Girl the Gods Let Go” and “Song,” which is one of my favorites in the collection. Nonetheless, these poems as a whole will appeal to many in the Pagan/polytheist community. Sadie’s poems have a deep appreciation for and concern with the natural world, and its decline due to human activity.

Sadie’s poems are works to be savored. Read them slowly, then go back and read them again.

Highly recommended to fans of Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Routery, and Steven Klepetar.

[Rebecca Buchanan is the editor of EHS.]