Beachy Head

Poetry. "Emily Toder's BEACHY HEAD brims with electrical currents flying backwards and forwards, with the force of poems that have been well fought out and felt. I hear the currents of Alice Notley, of Bernadette Mayer, of Eileen Myles, and Sylvia Plath, through the book, with its sharp wit and grace, with its 'separate set of physics' and the 'venerable uphill' of music that this great poet has at her disposal. I am so happy that this book is here, because I want to share it with all of my friends, so that we may spread the currents this poet has made for us into the air, and everywhere."—Dorothea Lasky "Emily Toder writes as if we achieve reality only through speech, as if we harbor reality in what we make & beyond that is the void, all dangerous with rusty nails & magazine articles. Her poems make direct & furious eye contact with the reader, pushing lines into the reader's eyes like a moth in reverse until the boundaries between emotions & objects & prosody break down into primordial elements of love, freedom, & making."—Mathias Svalina "BEACHY HEAD is a book of great expanses, big numbers, repetition, and slow real time. As I read it, I get to thinking that I want to think about things as they really are. I can detect feelings in myself and can detect my own mind. Each poem is more important than the last. Then I want to reread the whole book. No one is forcing me to say this. These are just really good poems. I've never written a blurb thinking, 'I can't wait for this book to be published so that I can get a copy and read it some more,' and this very honestly is what I am thinking."—Lucy Ives