Poetry. Art. In PACKS SMALL PLAYS BIG, Phyllis Capello gives us exquisite, finely-crafted lyrical poems, polished and many-faceted as the finest jewels. These poems contain a woman's voice crying out from tenement windows and city streets. They both grieve for all that is lost to the passage of time and celebrate all that remains.--Maria Mazziotti Gillan PACKS SMALL PLAYS BIG packs a punch to the gut. Whether it's a feminist reclamation of myth and fable, an activist's prophetic cries of injustice, or the elusive compression of an attuned lyric poet, Capello offers measured solace and rousing intensity. Where else but with this poet's magic can bewitched urban landscapes of 'alarm jangles' and 'jabbering pizzicato' transform into redemptive homemade shrines--notwithstanding the 'patched potholes' and 'pedestrian plod.' The poems 'spark and hum' and the emotion catches our throats.--Peter Covino An exquisite redefinition of Time. The poet's meditation brings ancient sensibility to the urban landscape, Delos to the 'steel horizon, ' Athena to Avenue X. Through stars, dreams, shoelaces, women on the brink keening in tune with sirens, gears, brakes, the lurch of subways overhead, Capello burnishes an eternal lemniscate brimmed with passion.--Annie Rachele Lanzillotto