Ravenna Press

breathtakingly good, reminiscent of “Creeley’s Presences” but better.”

Here, indeed, is the sound of silence" (Steve Sneyd); speaking in a forensic context for those who were never listened to in life, or in death.”

...a beautiful small book...doing concisely and poetically what Paul Metcalf and Gertrude Stein did with prose.”

Rantala's elegiac, erudite, and highly particularized miscellany is a tribute to her passionate requirement that what passes for most unseen be paid close attention and memorialized in language.”

The chapbook presents a rather lyrical poem by the author who then purports to draw (and quixotically does) parallels to and commentary upon it, line by line, from naturalistic memoirs, diaries and scientific observations by writers in various fields, all properly annotated, each running concurrently and developing its own companionable sense.”

A phenomenal book…the genres of poetry and memoir and travel journal blend masterfully and the rhythms of the juxtapositions make the book one grand poem so full of surprising shifts -- The powerful lyrical imagery affects one on such a deeply personal level.”

In "The Finnish Orchestra," Rantala considers her own heritage as she knows it--spare of fact, filled with impression and effect.  Alternately lyrical, post-modern, runic, the pieces create an eclectic symphony of the individual, as unique as the orchestra in which her immigrant grandfather played in early 20th Century Astoria, Oregon.  One is estranged, yet immersed in this family and their near-Arctic land of marshes, wolves and auroras.  The vintage B&W photos characterize them and their environs, supporting and ultimately merging atmosphere with the poetry itself.   "Arch of dark, the sun, low in love, as used as smooth as sauna, dim for the weary, for the dead, their eyes of coal; travelers reddened by steamed joy. Night lets itself in. A foot wrong here is the Arctic...."