Description Tony Zurlo’s poetry pirouettes, surprises us with twists and turns of language as unpredictable as “jellied primroses” and “garments” that “loiter.” Vivian Lu’s art arrests, braking our hearts. Together these two recreate not only the idea of China, but its emotional rhythms, its coming and going, its thinking and singing. Read these poems with pen in hand, for words will leap up dressed in their finest, eager for notice. Pictures will costume concepts that strut and fret across the page. This is a “seeing place” book appealing to eyes that inhabit the mind as well as eyes that perch on the face. Violet O’Valle, poet and Founding Director of Pantagleize Theatre Co., Fort Worth/Arlington, Texas Tony Zurlo’s poems reach beneath the surface of the observation of another culture, in his case China, where he taught at Hebei Teacher’s University, to an understanding of shared frames of experience. His work’s reticence, its organic shaping and clarity coheres with the poetry of classical China. At its best, as in “The Souls of Ghosts,” Zurlo’s work is the poem as gift – both gift of vision to the poet, as well as the poet’s gift to the reader. Jim LaVilla-Havelin, San Antonio Express-News Poetry : American – General
