Readers beware: Victoria Bailey‘s “Cannibalism and the Copenhagen Interpretation: A Love Story” will captivate you and not let go, even after you close the cover. Bailey’s unique style and unadorned language make this collection one of the most engaging you’ll ever read.
–Mary E. O’Dell, author of A Dangerous Man, Poems for the Man Who Weighs Light and Living in the Body
In Cannibalism and the Copenhagen Interpretation: A Love Story, Victoria Woolf Bailey’s titles alone give the reader a reason to savor her poems. Borrowing from a variety of fields—including science, music, and philosophy—Bailey weaves together a story of love, ending each section with thought-provoking review questions and a final exam at the end of the book. The poet takes the reader through the narrator’s life, examining her growth as an individual person and as half of a couple, who join themselves together “In pictures and files and paper.” The poems move the reader through the various stages of a long-term relationship, showing not only the up side of love, but also the challenges when “We are two dominoes/standing on edge.” But, in the end, love prevails over all, even death, as the narrator realizes “Someday one of us will be left/ alone in a blizzard of grief.” Cannibalism and the Copenhagen Interpretation: A Love Story is written with the language and wisdom of a poet working at the height of her powers.
–Linda Neal Reising, author of The Keeping and Stone Roses
Victoria Woolf Bailey’s new collection is a beautiful tapestry of art, myth, philosophy, science, and so much more, woven by a consistent voice whose interrogation ranges from the personal concerns of relationships and aging, to the universal with questions like “Can you imagine infinity?” The speaker “can explain the color blue,” in one poem, and creates a striking image with “Tomorrow will draw lines / on both our faces” in another. The titles, some of which are like poems in themselves, set expectations which are often turned end-on-end when the poems juxtapose disparate ideas that prompt exploration, reflection, and discovery.
–Pamela Hirschler, author of What Lies Beneath
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