There is something magical about the way Samantha DeFlitch has stitched the poems in Confluence together. The repetition of certain words—especially “old,” “dog,” and “woman”—throughout the book give the feeling of a series of ghazals pulled apart and then gently woven into the manuscript. As a result, poems call to each other in a way reminiscent of the couplets of a ghazal. The Arabic verse form was originally used in poems about loss and romantic love, both of which are subjects central to the book. “Life is brushing me clean, gently, as if/ blowing dust off an old desk,” writes DeFlitch in the poem “I Told Colleen.” And we are drawn into her journey through the music of her language, compelling images such as the bridge spires in Pittsburgh that “twang in the cold,” and the ongoing anticipation of a miracle that could happen if, or happen over there, or happen someplace else . . . Confluence is available Here.
Kathy Davis 