Running Counterclockwise

"Alarie Tennille listens to the things of this world, hungry to transform them into a language and tone that will linger long in a reader’s mind. By turns amused, fascinated, repulsed, and deeply moved, she explores the vagaries and brilliances and sorrows of her surroundings and reports back. With the eye of a painter—indeed, many of the poems are informed by paintings—Tennille notes that “every green is its own green,/sometimes not green at all.” Here is mystery and beckoning and surprise. While her style is straightforward and clear, it’s the passion for her subjects that characterizes Tennille’s work--no skating merely on the surface here. We may not become better human beings after reading Running Counterclockwise, but if not, the fault will be our own. In this collection, Tennille offers us our chances, poem by compassionate, wise, and ironic poem."
--Jo McDougall, author of Dirt and Satisfied with Havoc