“This collection is precise, wonderfully commanding, it seizes you, tackles such complex issue with such finesse, it won’t let you go.”
—Jennifer Maritza McCauley
When Trying to Return Home (Counterpoint)
Talk Smack to a Hurricane deals with the impact of a mother’s mental illness. What happens to anger when there’s no one to blame? Can psychiatry allow a woman her power and personhood? These poems delve into a bond shaped by postpartum issues, locked wards, anti-semitism, and love—real love not always believed by either mother or daughter.
Honorable Mention & Grand Prize shortlist, 2023 Eric Hoffer Award
Finalist, 8th Annual Phillip H. McMath Award
PRAISE FROM REVIEWERS
“There exists in the story of Lampe’s poems a stark contrast between the love from the mother when she was mentally present and the absence of love when she was ill, in darkness.” —Alicia Elkort, Tinderbox Poetry Journal
“The poet’s love for her mother is evident in every line of this collection, but it’s not an easy or carefree type of love.” —Gabby Gilliam, Mom Egg Review
“In Talk Smack to a Hurricane, Lynne Jensen Lampe writes movingly about the personal side of [mental illness], finding love and compassion behind the diagnosis.”—Erica Goss, Sticks & Stones
“The poems are masterfully crafted, economic in wording and powerful with story.”
—Barbara Harris Leonhard, Masticadores USA
“This slender collection should be on poets’ shelves if only for the wonderful examples of fresh ways to use poetic forms.” —Lois Baer Barr, Highland Park Poetry
“Writing colors, natural features, even the topography of human nature, she excels at conveying how precious life is; ever-deteriorating yet wholly worth preserving.” —Aarik Danielsen, Columbia Daily Tribune
“My God, everyone should read Lynne Jensen Lampe’s beautiful, moving collection. I have, three times,
and these poems still punch. Just brilliant!”