Lamenting My Failure to Learn How to Tap Dance: And Other Missteps

I love this collection of poetry! Johannes experiments with many different literary forms of poetry, including villanelles and abecedarians, but what I loved best about this collection was the wide range of topics and emotions remembered, explored and described in her poems. Particularly moving were poems that captured the feelings of a caregiver of a dementia patient (“Black Humor” and “His Name is Sisyphus”) and those of a daughter in the hospital room of her terminally ill mother (“The Elephant”). Equally entertaining and meaningful but more light-hearted were poems about a fantasy laundromat love-affair (“Note Posted Under the Lost Pet Notices”) and a hilarious description of aging female anatomy (“Mantra with Sound Effects”). Johannes is a skilled and gifted writer, and I feel lucky to have had the chance to preview her new book of poetry. I recommend it without reservation!