Glassworks
  • home
  • about
    • history
    • staff bios
    • community outreach
    • affiliations
    • contact
  • current issue
    • read Issue 26
    • letter from the editor
    • looking glass spring 2023
    • interview with Raina J. Leon
    • interview with Sarah Fawn Montgomery
  • submit
    • submission guidelines
  • looking glass
    • through the looking glass
  • editorial content
    • book reviews
    • opinion
    • interviews
  • flash glass
    • flash glass 2023
    • flash glass 2022
    • flash glass 2021
    • flash glass 2020
    • flash glass 2019
    • flash glass 2018
    • flash glass 2017
    • flash glass 2016
    • flash glass 2015
  • media
    • art
    • audio
    • video
  • archive
    • award nominees
    • read and order back issues
  • Master of Arts in Writing program
    • about Writing Arts at Rowan University
    • application and requirements
  • newsletter
  • home
  • about
    • history
    • staff bios
    • community outreach
    • affiliations
    • contact
  • current issue
    • read Issue 26
    • letter from the editor
    • looking glass spring 2023
    • interview with Raina J. Leon
    • interview with Sarah Fawn Montgomery
  • submit
    • submission guidelines
  • looking glass
    • through the looking glass
  • editorial content
    • book reviews
    • opinion
    • interviews
  • flash glass
    • flash glass 2023
    • flash glass 2022
    • flash glass 2021
    • flash glass 2020
    • flash glass 2019
    • flash glass 2018
    • flash glass 2017
    • flash glass 2016
    • flash glass 2015
  • media
    • art
    • audio
    • video
  • archive
    • award nominees
    • read and order back issues
  • Master of Arts in Writing program
    • about Writing Arts at Rowan University
    • application and requirements
  • newsletter
Glassworks

Review: Walking in on People

6/16/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Funny Truths About Human Nature
Review: Walking In On People

 
Kaitlin Zeilman

Melissa Balmain
Poetry

Able Muse Press, pp. 80
Cost: $18.95



Melissa Balmain’s book Walking in on People transfixes readers with the humor of her and her family’s everyday life. The poet's simple language illustrates a play on observation, thought, and vantage point as she tackles marriage, raising children, and pop culture. Delivering lines that are thought provoking and eloquent, she simultaneously keeps the poetry genuine with her direct language. Balmain is boldly “walking in on people” where many choose not to go. This collection shouldn’t, however, be seen as spying, but rather as a different take on the renewal of faith in everyday human nature.

The poems in Balmain’s collection have varied subject matter and are intended to be humorous. Readers of more than one personality type should be able to at least smile after entering this poet's world. Because some of the entries are so short, every word has to mean something…and each one does. Walking in on People is constructed in such a way that the poems flow easily from one to the next. It also helps that they are divided into sections so the reader can skip around to the subjects they find more interesting.


Many lines can be very funny and innocent at the same time. One of the better examples comes from the titular poem “Walking in on People,” which reads, “I witness at a conference enjambed / of friends rebounding from a recent breakup / and once, two mimes in nothing but their makeup.” 
Balmain manages to get across a serious point while keeping the words light so the reader and the mood do not become overwhelming. These lines obviously are talking not only about a breakup from the outset, but also about two friends reacting to their perceived hardship. 

Read More
0 Comments

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    March 2013
    December 2012


    Categories

    All
    2Leaf Press
    7.13 Books
    Able Muse Press
    Abuse
    Agate Publishing
    Agha Shahid Ali Prize
    Alfred A. Knopf
    Alternative Book Press
    A Midsummer Night's Press
    Andrews McMeel Publishing
    Animals
    Apocalypse Party
    Aqueous Books
    Art
    Ashland Creek Press
    Atticus Books
    Autumn House Press
    Bedazzled Ink Publishing
    Bellevue Literary Press
    Belonging
    Black Lawrence Press
    Book Review
    Bottom Dog Press
    Button Poetry
    Cake Train Press
    Catholic
    Chapbook
    Chronic Illness
    Coffee House Press
    Cold War
    Collection
    Coming Of Age
    Copper Canyon Press
    Creeping Lotus Press
    Divertir Publishing
    Drama
    Dystopian
    Dzanc Books
    Editorial
    Essay
    Essays
    Fairy Tales
    Family
    Fat Dog Books
    Father
    Feminism
    Fiction
    Finishing Line Press
    Flash
    Forest Avenue Press
    Furniture Press Books
    Future Tense Books
    Gender
    Geology
    Gospel
    Graywolf Press
    Hadley Rille Books
    Harbor Mountain Press
    Headmistress Press
    Historical Fiction
    Holocaust
    Home
    Howling Bird Press
    Humor
    Hybrid
    Identity
    Illness
    Immigration
    Jaded Ibis Press
    Journalism
    Kernpunkt Press
    Knut House Press
    Language
    Lanternfish Press
    LEFTOVER Books
    Lewis Hine
    LGBTQ
    Literature
    Mad Creek Books
    Meadow-Lark Books
    Memoir
    Mental Health
    #MeToo
    Microcosm Publishing
    Midwest
    Milkweed Editions
    Mixed Media
    Moonflower Books
    Motherhood
    Multi Genre
    Nature
    Nonfiction
    Novel
    Other Press
    Painting
    Perceval Press
    Poetry
    Poetry Prize
    Poetry Review
    Politics
    Press 53
    Prose Poetry
    Race
    Red Bird Chapbooks
    Red Hen Press
    Relationships
    Religion
    Scribner Books
    Sexuality
    Shechem Press
    Short Story
    Son
    Spirituality
    Split Lip Press
    Spoken Word
    Stories
    Suspense
    Symbolism
    Tarpaulin Sky Press
    Tolsun Books
    Torrey House Press
    Tragedy
    Translation
    Travel
    Two Dollar Radio
    University Of Utah Press
    Unnamed Press
    Unsolicited Press
    Violence
    Wings Press
    Winter Goose Publishing
    Women
    World War II
    Yale Younger Poets Prize

    RSS Feed


Picture

glassworks is a publication of
​Rowan University's Master of Arts in Writing
260 Victoria Street • Glassboro, New Jersey 08028 
glassworksmagazine@rowan.edu
​All Content on this Site (c) 2023 glassworks