Riverettes, by Michelle Cicillini

Poetry, chapbook, 24 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Riverettes by Michelle Cicillini is a moving meditation on love, unfolding in the invented form of a cascading quintain. Each line carries a word from the previous line forward, creating waves that propel from each title. Riverettes echoes the Buddhist concept of skandhas or the “five rivers” — form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. These little rivers, accompanied by original sketches, linger at the charged threshold between the lover and the beloved. Riverettes ends where it begins, at the first signs of love.

Michelle Cicillini is the author of Avian Aria (Alien Buddha Press) with books forthcoming from Fernwood Press, Figmentum and Finishing Line Press. She is the editor of MOONLOVE Press, publishing poetry chapbooks by women. She lives in New York and dreams in Italy.