Exposed Nerves poetry by Lucy A. Snyder

Synopsis:

Exposed Nerves continues the explorations into dark poetry by Stoker Award winner and Shirley Jackson Award nominee Lucy A. Snyder, pairing the author’s sly wordplay and imagery with grim introspection. By turns challenging, wryly amusing and gut-wrenching, Snyder’s work plumbs bittersweet catharsis and maps a survivor’s path through dangerous worlds, both the real and the horrifically imagined.

Edition:

Paperback (review copy provided by the publisher)

Click here for other titles I’ve reviewed by this author.

Trigger Warnings:

My Thoughts:

Exposed Nerves is one of those collections that is so good that when I tried to narrow down my favorites, I still ended up with a list half a mile long. That’s kind of a running theme with the poetry collections I’ve read from RDS Press.

Lucy A. Snyder is such a great writer (I’ve reviewed a collection of Halloween-themed short stories by her as well). She’s clearly got a lot of range. Not only are her short stories enjoyable, but her poetry is really, really good.

To quote the collection’s foreword, written by Mary A. Turzillo,

“In this superb collection, she exposes social hypocrisy and vanity, but in a way that enlightens. Acts of injustice and attitudes of oppression are motes of grit that generate striking poetic pearls.”

My favorites in this collection are, in no particular order:

• In Spite of It
• Mythical
• Salty
• Lessons
• Navigational Error
• It’s Fine

Legitimately there are some “striking poetic pearls” to be found here. I think this line from Lessons might stick with me forever:

“Silence in the face of lies
shines falsehoods brighter than a library of facts.”

Rating:

I think this is a really lovely collection of poems about difficult and/or ugly subjects. I really enjoyed it.

Exposed Nerves
By Lucy A. Snyder
Raw Dog Screaming Press
Published: September 28, 2021
ISBN: 9781947879362
Paperback, E-book
114 Pages