Review of Three Blocks West of Wonderland by Poetry Is Dead Magazine Editor-In-Chief Daniel Zomparelli.

“The modern poet must deal with our technological/consumer-driven/corporate reality and attempt to find a small space of peace in this world. In Three Blocks West of Wonderland, Heather Susan Haley explores the beauty of nature through a grounded lens without ever ignoring the implications of consumerism and corporatization.

Haley’s narrative-driven lyrical poems are emotionally raw and go down like a shot of whiskey. They are filled with complicated dichotomies of nature versus humanity. The best example of this appears in “Appleton,” my favourite poem in the collection. The poem sets up a pot-smoking high, only to pull back and discuss the implications of the marijuana industry and all of the sticky legalities and the gang involvement. Haley has no trouble finding the beauty of life, just as she has no trouble pointing out the ugly truth.

Every poem in Three Blocks West of Wonderland features humour, anger, passion, love, inquisition and a kick-in-the-pants tone. The only hesitation I had with the book was that the narrative line didn’t connect strongly from poem to poem. It might come from reading too many conceptual poetry books, but I like my narrative poetry collections to keep the story going throughout. As a result, this book is best read at a casual pace or, more specifically, this whiskey-slinging, pickle juice-in-the-potato salad, roadkill, I-5 book of poetry is best read with a cool mug of lager. It’ll put some hair on those balls … or grow you a set, for that matter.” Hmm, I will have to take that as a compliment, for it must be the opposite of emasculate. That’s me, the elevate-or, the ball builder, the booster. “Exuberance is beauty,” after all, according to William Blake.