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Using long, sprawling sentences that bubble over into multiple stanzas, Read’s poems evoke a sense of nostalgia and a longing for the past while also offering up big truths arrived at through simple moments. Some of the poems directly address poet Sylvia Plath, updating her on what it is to suffer as a writer and as a woman in today’s world. Others include pop culture references to everyone from Marguerite Duras to Madonna. This Serious World is presented with a transparency that is gloomy at times, but the collection also reminds the reader not to take life too seriously, providing an antidote to the world’s seriousness in the form of touching moments, humor, and solace.
