The Virgin Formica

“Whether taking surreal leaps and bounds over the trash and beauty of cityscapes or drawing gnomic lines from woodland views, Sharon Mesmer’s poems are timed to rise with those moments when ‘things are always beginning or becoming’ or to settle in ‘a way to hear Hope talking or maybe listening.’ At turns intimate or boisterously satiric, The Virgin Formica can gently detonate or erupt, carrying readers along on ripples or shockwaves.”—Paul Violi