Scorpyn Odes

“As though looking over the poet’s shoulder as she writes, ‘I PROPHESIZE, I PROPHESIZE, I PROPHESIZE,’ a bold current racing through the new Dark Age. Laynie Browne’s Scorpyn Odes is a departure not only from her previous books, but a departure from the known book. Having been a devout follower of her work for years, THESE are her poems I most want to chant aloud, ‘From I may not speak to the mountain, I may not look at the mountain, I may not remember the mountain.’ You thought you were aware of what poetry could mean to you, could do to you, then her poems did something new to you.”—CAConrad

“The mysterious power of the scorpion, both animal and constellation, informs the complex emotions of wrenchingly ongoing departure in this beautiful collection of odes to distance, absence, connection, and memory. The scorpion is the ‘miniature vessel of time’ that both poisons and heals: the gorgeous poetry around it is the ‘house of hope/ constructed solely of words.’ In this world of departures, Browne allows us to ‘Say possibly nothing is forgotten.’”—Marcella Durand

“Laynie Browne has a knack for moving between worlds to channel an orchestra of animal, vegetable, and mineral voices. Scorpyn Odes is gritty and sublime, a meditation on the affections and afflictions that make us human.”—Lisa Jarnot