My Painted Warriors: Notable Voices

Penn probes the character of enduring love and the frailty of human life. These poems are a celebration of ritual and the passage of time. “Penn’s subject is age: winter and funerals, yes, but also brassieres, orgasms after sixty, flourishing gardens, and four boys, her painted warriors. The images of these poems, both tender and bright, are as surprising as the sudden ruby of blood from a cut. Their sensibility is as understanding of humanity as any reader could hope for. Penn encases the double helix of love and loss in the ordinary, whether that is a cantaloupe or the hair on a wrist. Worlds into worlds open up in My Painted Warriors, transforming this book of poems into a collection of miracles. It is the kind of poetry I can turn to when I wake in the night, the voice of both a fellow companion and a sagacious guide.” – Molly Peacock