Description:
In Body of Starlight, Carroll explores the female body and its connection to the cosmos, shirking conventional ideas of beauty and physicality with sometimes tragic, often witty meditations on Eastern philosophy and Western superficiality. Characterizing womanhood as both supremely divine and hopelessly mortal, Carroll chronicles her experiences, observations, and opinions with intimate detail.
Poet Maggie Smith says, "Body of Starlight is wise, quick-witted, and fearless. Clearly concerned with both the physical and the mystical, these are poems of muscle and bone; poems of shadow and light. Full of music and masterfully enjambed, Carroll's poems sing. 'This planetary song...rings too in our molecules, little songs, //sonnets in our teeth...' Lean in, body and soul. Listen. These poems have things to teach us."
Brief description: Melissa Carroll is a writer, poet, yoga instructor, and occasional rancher. She received her MFA from University of South Florida in 2012. Carroll is the editor of the essay collection Going OM: Real-Life Stories on and off the Yoga Mat (Viva Editions, 2014). Melissa is the author of two poetry chapbooks: The Pretty Machine (ELJ Editions, 2016) and The Karma Machine (YellowJacket Press, 2011), which received the Peter Meinke Award.
Review Quotes:
"Poet Maggie Smith says, "Body of Starlight is wise, quick-witted, and fearless. Clearly concerned with both the physical and the mystical, these are poems of muscle and bone; poems of shadow and light. Full of music and masterfully enjambed, Carroll's poems sing. 'This planetary song...rings too in our molecules, little songs, //sonnets in our teeth...' Lean in, body and soul. Listen. These poems have things to teach us." - Maggie Smith, author of Good Bones and The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison
"Every poem in Carroll's exquisite Body of Starlight reverberates, a celebration of human spirit, the body's beauty and burden, the life of memories and a luminous future. Carroll writes in the opening poem, "Every sound a verb, every song a prayer." I'm so grateful for Carroll's voice. This book is a gift." - Erica Dawson, author of When Rap Spoke Straight to God