The poems in Hue & Cry, Martin’s second poetry collection, explore the world of art—what inspires creativity? what does genius mean? what awakens the imagination? who decides who is an artist? But these poems are also about the art of living in the world. In particular, the dozen poems in the voices of Picasso’s lovers, wives, mistresses, and friends portray women as creators, subjects, and muses against the backdrop of the entire twentieth century.
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“Diane Martin’s wonderful new collection Hue & Cry is alarmingly full of lines, images and observations I dearly wish I had written myself. The varied speakers of these poems are pithy, down to earth, and winningly direct in their wisdoms, as well as eloquent, colloquial, tender, occasionally bawdy, and very much full of surprise. With most contemporary poetry, too often I know where I’m going well before I get there. That couldn’t be less the case with this terrific book. Martin has a serious gift for precise, textured, and dynamic language, and her keen habit of seeing the world slant makes these poems feel very much alive. This book woke me up, and I feel pretty certain it’ll do the same for you.”
—Erin Belieu
“You already know what happens between breakfast and dinner writes Diane K. Martin in Hue & Cry. Her language doesn’t reconfigure the quotidian; it engages with the fire and shadows left in the wake of love, memory, grief—the wreckage of living. This concern with consequence is most visible in an astonishing series in the voices of the women Picasso painted. These persona poems challenge and complicate our notions of the Muse.… fine-sculpted; line after line resonates with grace and elegance.”
—Eduardo Corral
“In their economy and range, Diane Martin’s poems show us connections and affinities we had not anticipated, dazzling us, intriguing us, and keeping us off balance. We read them with delight: poems that spin, dance, leap, and generate insight continuously.”
—David Young
Hue & Cry
by Diane K. Martin
$21.95, paperback, 112 pp
ISBN-13: 978-1-941196-98-4