In the poetic sequence, Eight, Amy Allara explores her recent days through a sustained revery of childhood. As musically deft a composition as Allara has accomplished, her masterful sense of collage shows above all in her compelling flights and harmonies. As she notes, “A minuet – its own ways and means.”

As with her previous two titles for Magra, A Theory of Consequence and Unfamiliar Terms, most remarkable about Allara’s poetry is the precision of her imaginings that are both fresh and moving. As Allara demands, with a child’s integrity, “Who would trade a reverie for a treatise?”

Drawings by Emma Wolgast