All the Sad Angels

Reviews

All the Sad Angels is unlike any of Grapes's previous books. The poems defy simple critical analysis. One encounters an acceptance of life, an open-armed and open-hearted containment of life's diverse pains and pleasures, griefs and joys. If you get a chance to hold this book in your hands, open it as you would a treasure chest filled with wondrous objects—some obvious, some mysterious, some magical, and many tender and comforting.

Lisa Segal, The Cultural Weekly

These poems are reveries of sorts on existential concerns: how do we find meaning in a world without meaning? How do we live with the anguish of such meaningless, which leads to what Sartre referred to as 'nausea."? Grapes's answer is: communion with others—our fellow sad angels who share the ontological sorrow that attends us all.

Matthew Hetznegger, The Cultural Weekly

The poems in All the Sad Angels are so perfectly written that they don't really seem written at all. I can't think of anyone who writes poems quite in the way Grapes does, with a marvelous mixture of humor and warmth, intelligence and erudition, wise strength and earnestness of heart.

Richard Jones, Poetry East

Grapes has an amazing spoken sense, a poetic spoken sense, of course. A few months ago, I found a blog that mentioned Grapes as one of the greatest living—albeit unrecognized—contemporary poets.

Chris Byck, 48th Street Press