These poems are fierce and unflinching. McGarrah makes a difficult life on the page, one that is relentlessly personal and historical. Here are bruised, shamed, restless elegies wrestling to give us a collection that is beautiful and unafraid of its own shadow.
Victoria Redel
Professional Reviews
The Real Deal
Jim McGarrah's Running the Voodoo Down is the answer for those who ask the question, "What is modern poetry about?" More accurately stated, his poetry is the answer for the malaise in which too much modern poetry finds itself embedded. His poetry is not just fancy footwork written for a clique of fellow insiders who might "get it," as too much of what currently passes for poetry attempts to do. Running the Voodoo Down is timeless poetry that is carved from the soul of someone who has lived too much life, yet not enough. McGarrah's poems at once terrify us, force us to savor each second of life and stand up to our mortality. I read his book at dawn and by midnight that day I was still crying, laughing and shuddering at the emotions his work evoked in me. Weeks later I reread Voodoo and all of the poems hit me flush in the face as if I were reading them for the first time. Buy this book and beware: what you are about to read is the real deal, a collection of poetry that will make you be thankful there is at least one working poet who knows what he is doing.
Each person is but a grain of sand resting beside the sea. This thought sets the tone for Jill Eisnaugle’s latest poetry collection, Beside Still Waters.
