ROBIN RICHARDSON

Grunt of the Minotaur 

Insomniac Press

“A canvas explains nothing, only folds and musters light,” reflects Robin Richardson, poet of rare sharpness, for whom every page is a canvas rich in mystery.  Flaunting a painterly attention to the seductive textures of menace—“pike smiling from a skillet,” “an arm offered up in buttermilk,” “crystal cups now dust which cuts the palms”—here are portraits, still lifes, fables and allegorical tableaux that enrapture the ear with the textures of language itself.  Taxidermy, trussed birds, daguerrotypes, a crow-foot tub.  This book makes ecstasy of ekphrasis, “each separate occasion rising for distinction in the lamp.”  

- Suzanne Buffam - The Irrationalist