A Conspiracy of Blackbirds (en Inglés) - Terri Cohlene;Lana Hechtman Ayers

Terri Cohlene has crafted a book of surprises in her debut poetry collection, A Conspiracy of Blackbirds. The wide ranging poems are contained only by the boundaries of her life experiences and imagination. The poem "On the Table" has a massage therapist attempting to knead away a smattering of adversaries inhabiting her past: from ex-husband to childhood bully to a mother "lodged like a lizard / around my sternum-" The poems are poignant, laugh out-loud clever, and above all, insightful and touching. She dives deep into her relationship with her estranged mother, a woman who was abused and abandoned by her own mother, who in turn repeated that script with her daughter. For those of us wounded souls who came from rocky beginnings, Terri's voice is a kindred spirit, sorting difficult truths on love and rejection, childhood and aging (with disease) that many of us will find all too familiar. Even so, Terri's poetry is witty and accessible. Her use of language is tight and clean: in the poem "The Ocean Pours Out" (one of my favorites), she writes of a high school gymnasium orchestral concert conducted by her daughter: "I make my nest [on the bleachers] in the midst of magpies, / a clutch of chatter about bake sales and raffle / tickets... and whether that really / was Coach Sweeney making out with the president / of the PTA last night behind the Dairy Queen." A Conspiracy of Blackbirds is a master class in self exploration while looking at one's life in the rearview. I highly recommend it.

-Patrick Dixon, author of Waiting to Deliver and Mending Holes

Terri Cohlene's A Conspiracy of Blackbirds chronicles how one woman breaks free from a multi-generational cycle of abandonments to reach for the sky in a transformative murmuration of stunning flight. This collection is nothing short of an uplifting triumph of spirit and strength as only poetry can deliver.

- Sandra Yannone, Fire at the Big Top, and Host, Cultivating Voices LIVE Poetry