Terese,
Wasn't sure whether you wanted others to latch onto your thread or start new ones. Apologies if it was the latter!
Here's a brief notice I've just posted on Alicia Stallings'
Archaic Smile. (Amazon have my name as Eileen M. Moore - the business version)
That over-used tag 'collector's item' is well deserved by this publication. Readers whose knowledge of Greek myth is rusty or rudimentary need have no fear. A.A. Stallings wears her learning as lightly as she holds the reins of her metrical horses. Humour bubbles up from time to time, as does tenderness, which never slurps into sentimentality.
Themes range from the personal (housework, lost belongings, garden disasters) to the public (the instability of urban civilization, the festering scars of war). Practising poets have much to learn from Stallings' easy switches from myth to modern reality, from colloquial to formal speech registers. Hers is indeed an art which conceals art.
Margaret.
PS. Alicia . Many apologies for putting 'A.A.' for 'A.E.' in the first para. M.

[This message has been edited by Campoem (edited June 26, 2003).]