Sometimes

Sometimes, fishing in green waters
we draw up words in a fine net,
decipher them like ancient runes.

Sometimes is not Always
though in the rhetoric
of argument we make it so.

Sometimes is not Never
though in anger
we make denial absolute.

Sometimes leaves doors ajar
for wind or dogs
or darkest night to slide through.

From Small Press Review, August 2006
by Francis Alix:

        "The beauty of this poetry chapbook was the surprises I witnessed each time I turned a page. The author was quite adept in addressing different themes and different places. This rendered a kaleidoscope of writing and filled me with anticipation. For instance, the poems brought me from a lake to an abbey in France, to Tiananmen Square in China, to a garden, to Bishop Hill Colony, Illinois, to Yosemite Park. I traveled the world and near her backyard in a mere twenty-nine pages.  Such adventure is a rare find, indeed.
        "The author was not content to write solely in the free verse that pervades poetry today. She had a villanelle, a ghazal, and a concrete poem. These added spice and complemented her journeys. Actually, I envied the author's ability to write in different forms.
        "The simplicity of her poetry did not equate to unskilled, pedestrian poetry. While she brought the ordinary to the pages in an accessible format, she also stretched the imagination and the soul.  In "Poem," she illuminated how a poem looks at everything, no matter how small.
         It looks for the flash of pileated woodpecker,
         finds the splash of blood in a schoolyard.
        Reminiscent of William Carlos Williams, she took the innocence of a schoolyard and woodpecker and revealed the unspoken truth, the fragility of the common.
        With two books and three chapbooks on her resume, Ms. Ray is a poet of sustained vision and abi9lity. She could easily become a respected professional in her field. If her next collection is equal to this one, I look forward to reading the work."