Robin Gabbert’s new book of poems, Diary of a Mad Poet—her first published book—comes out of pain and loss, fire and cancer, but they are also poems of healing and joy, family ties and friendships. Some take place in the far away past, others in the near present. Some experiment with form and the arrangement of words on the page. All together, Gabbert's individual poems add up to a portrait of a life lived fully. They offer hope to readers like the author herself who have come through troubles and who delight in the powers of memory and the rigors of the English language. " Robin Gabbert's poetry profoundly captures her ardent desire for living and continues to address truths in the fewest words through figurative language, phrases, and rhythm. It's therapeutic not only for Gabbert but for her readers as well. It's as if her painful experience made it difficult for her to enunciate her emotions through ordinary language, and thus she found refuge in poetry as a form of healing discourse. Gabbert is a poet of extraordinary feelings with an occasional blend of witty and paranoiac observation. I can understand how she feels and thinks in The Subtle Knife, because I have become slightly aichmophobic in dealing with cutlery as I have often, by accident, cut myself a number of times. Diary of a Mad Poet is poetic expression at its finest. Gabbert has renewed her life through the power of artistic imagination, and reading her anthology gives you that same effect ." Readers' Favorite