The Judas Ear

“Between first and second readings of The Judas Ear, I could not shake Baba Yaga’s scent; a bearded, naked potter; and the biodegradable funeral suit of Luke Perry. Even now, Anna Journey’s lines echo like lines of a song. The final word is ‘blooming.’ The poems are big, rangy, expansive in Whitmanesque, democratic ways. They have a narrative charisma but maintain Dickinson’s perversity, independence. Journey is as much a storyteller as a poet. Few write with her variety of emotional, intellectual, and musical muscle. This is simply a masterful collection of poems.”

~Terrance Hayes, author of American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin

“On the rotting bark of the tree from which the faithless disciple hanged himself, or so they say: a mushroom called ‘the Judas ear.’ Perfectly edible. ‘Risen flesh, shape-shifting, everlasting,’ as the author of these beautiful poems has the wisdom to teach us over and over again. The ever-ingenious biosphere is Journey’s tutelary spirit, luminous figuration her genius, and narrative restored to its proper essence her discovery mode: inspiring elementals all.” ~Linda Gregerson, author of Canopy