If you look down into the corner on the cover of Lana Ayer's latest book, you will see her peeking out into nature through a window we can also see into. Loss—including the natural world, personal and self-inflicted pain—is a major theme in her new collection of poems, Overtures. But there is also joy, as in “Balm,” in which she writes “Purple ink flows from the tip of my tongue.” Her poetic tendrils reach out into the world trying to find a handhold or foothold for her own poetic nature.
Lana Ayers' Overtures combines her personal history with a sense of wonder and irony, invoking her own muses and a sense of self-discovery. “Limitless” is the title of Section 1, but it is also rooted in the everyday and sounds her credo. “Plums” is a good opener, full of colors and close observation and a refusal to sentimentalize or trivialize the everyday.
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