Sky-Mammals

In his new collection of poems, Blair Hamelink portrays a life in the sky, blending his passion and woe with lyric velocity. In this book, the allure of the whimsy inevitably meets the tragedy, as was the flight of Icarus, and as is the skydiver's lifestyle of "toil & suave / adrenaline & repent." With particular desperation and spinal ache, the speaker of these poems seems to be looking for an escape from the "angel-factory," where skydivers have been "jovially flung, dealt Pocket Aces