The Naked Truths of Margo Stever’s Bareback Rider

 

Title: Bareback Rider

Author:  Margo Taft Stever

Publisher:  Broadstone Books

 

Copyright:  2025

Number of Pages:  26

Blurbs by:  Sarah Arvio, Susana H. Case, Mervyn Taylor

Key Descriptors: horses, dysfunctional family, climate change

First Sentence:  “Only a few humans.”

Last Sentence: “She died/ trying to save/ a bug.

Comment: In this compact collection of 15 poems, forward motion fuels this work, even when a barricade jump fails and horse and rider fall. This is a set of poems garnished with risk, including the eye-popping image on the front cover that shows a naked woman riding bareback.

 

Watch Your Fingers & Toes in Mary Mackey’s Burning World

 

Title:  In This Burning World

Author:  Mary Mackey

Publisher:  Marsh Hawk Press

Copyright:  2025

Number of Pages:  118

Blurbs by:  Pamela Berkman, Rafael Jesus Gonzalez, Jane Hirshfield, Wes Jackson, Maxine Hong Kingston, D. Nurkse, Tulsa Book Review, Richard Wiles

Key Descriptors: climate change, love, planet, apocalypse

First Sentence: “such a short path”

Last Sentence: “you who burn in us forever/ with the light of creation”

Comment:  Depicting herself as a Cassandra, a prophet no one heeds, Mary Mackey pours a hurricane of love into her poetry.  Beware, her humor is dangerous as is her Little Old Lady who is dropped behind enemy lines, who is able to handle multiple lovers and wild beasts with equanimity. Mary Mackey is equal parts scholar/teacher and adventurer.