An important collection of poems, "Asylum" is at once an intimate look at the poet's own grief and loss, and a macro study in the illnesses that plague our culture at large.

I read Jill Bialosky's book, Poetry Will Save Your Life, a while back and was impressed with it. At that point, I don't believe I had yet been exposed to Ms. Bialosky's poetry. However, I was convinced that someone who could write so compellingly about poetry could probably also write some pretty good verse. This is, in fact, the case. Asylum is a terrific collection, and particularly moving in its treatment of the death by suicide of the poet's younger sister. Several poems in this volume touch upon the tragedy, and are among the most moving verses in the book. I also enjoyed the regular appearance of poems describing the physical, emotional, and spiritual experience of performing specific yoga poses with which I have become acquainted in my own practice.

This was a great selection for me, and I am pleased to have had the opportunity to review it thanks to the advance electronic reader copy provided by Knox Doubleday and Netgalley.com

A beautiful poetry collection that touches on many many topics, ones related to the poet and to the human experience at large. At the end, there are references for further reading on the facts behind poems based on specific global events.

This book has some very interesting things to say through poetry. It's a really interesting mix of the poet's personal tragedies mixed with those of others, as well as a larger connection to collective memory and inherited trauma and sometimes the tiny lights of hope in that dark. I love the way she mixes nature imagery with human storytelling, and how she switches between nature and civilization. It almost feels like it mirrors an epic poem. Also, I really enjoyed the Bialosky's use of dual/multiple meanings of words (as in bodies for both water and people, or the multiple meanings of asylum).

I'd recommend this for anyone who is interested in nature poetry, personal histories and language with the caveat that the subject matter is heavy and includes infant mortality, suicide and the holocaust.