The Hollows of Bone

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The poems in Isabella J. Mansfield‘s The Hollows of Bone oscillate between caring and not caring, between apathy and “its hands around a heart” – the speaker’s heart – and the pain this ‘not caring’ causes. The upshot is bruises – from all quarters – from “momlife,” from being a daughter, from the body the speaker inhabits. Even a run of the mill shopping trip turns comically dark as a discount toy mutters Dia de Los Desecration rants at all the customers and exposes our speaker as the Target’s center. The good news is that this hollow spot and the others explored here have a voice – Mansfield’s voice – and unfold in raw, lyrical poems that rise triumphantly and find “the beauty in it.”–Dennis Hinrichsen, Lansing Poet Laureate and author of Skin Music