MANTA Poems by Barbara Knott

I love reading Barbara Knott‘s poetry because it refreshes the soul and challenges the mind like an afternoon spent with a witty and intelligent friend. Each poem left me feeling as if I too had known Manta and that I was better off for the experience.

–Kim Brown, Editor in Chief, Minerva Rising Literary Journal. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Today’s Chicago Woman, The National View Alumni Magazine, Naperville Sun and Pitkin Review.

Rating: ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]

Barbara Knott’s collection pays a wonderful tribute to her friend Manta Lester. “Manta Finds Her Edge” draws the reader into the richness of their friendship while capturing Manta’s essence. “Two Ladies Discover Dali’s Nuclear Mysticism” is another wonderful poem. I greatly admire Manta for her acute mind at her age and Barbara for teaching me more about Dali. Through the words and images with which Barbara shaped these poems, both Manta’s memory and their friendship endure. I even found myself feeling a bit jealous that Manta had not been my friend, too. MANTA Poems is a memorable read.

–Anne Webster, author of the poetry collection, A History of Nursing

Rating: ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]

Barbara Knott‘s second collection, MANTA Poems, is an apt and generous demonstration of how it is not necessary to wait, as poets so often do, for dramatic epiphanies to come to them before making poems. In this story — and it is a story — Knott gives us perfectly shaped pieces crammed with wit, concrete detail and the deliciousness to be found in the ordinary things of life, which, all coming together, express an elegant and hard-won philosophy. In them, her sensitivity, intelligence and poetic control shine through as she addresses, in a profound and original way, the possibilities of a life lived simply but well. Indeed, this deceptively uncomplicated yet beautiful book will bring pleasure and aha moments to her many readers.

–Rosemary Daniell, author of two collections of poetry, A Sexual Tour of the Deep South and Fort Bragg & Other Points South, as well as a chapbook, The Feathered Trees, and six other books.

Rating: ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]