a rave from Richie Hofman (100 Lovers, Knopf 2022) in The Poet's Nightstand

Cry Back My Sea
by Sarah Arvio


Sarah Arvio’s newest book is a book of heartbreak. As the title of the collection suggests, these poems move with the crash and retreat of waves, dynamic and emotional, and they carry with them the salt and sting of seawater. As a reader, I was swept up in the tumult of these poems: erotic, precise, and devastating as they turn and turn back on themselves. As a writer, I wanted to put the book down and write—they so unlocked new worlds of idea and of feeling. Arvio’s poems urge me deeper into language—into its material—and remind me how fragile we are, everything is. Cry Back My Sea is so fresh and so original—I don’t anticipate I’ll ever be “finished” reading such a rich and forceful book.

https://poetrysociety.org/features/the-poets-nightstand/the-poets-nightstand-with-richie-hofmann