Praise and Reviews
"Wonderful.
The work covers a lot of ground while keeping a poetic
sensibility, which is hard to do. We need more singularity-aware
art."
Ray Kurzweil
"In poetry
the thin line that divides the hermetic from the obvious is
dangerous ground and not all poets can tread there without
destruction. Magdalena is comfortable here and not only treads but
dances." Bob Williams
"Precise
and exciting. Words sizzle on the page. Images steeped in the
physical world work beautifully to illuminate complex emotions and
states of mind. Magdalena Ball is an important poet." Joan
Schweighardt, author of Gudrun's Tapestry, Virtual Silence
and other novels.
"This is a
book of poetry for anyone who has been in love and knows what it
is to live in the twenty-first century, but who is more than a
little scared of what might happen if all the lights went out.
Take these poems seriously. They may just have some of the answers
you require." Catherine Edmunds,author wormwood,
earth and honey
"Magdalena
Ball creates a stunning impression with her first full-length
collection, Repulsion Thrust. Her poems speak of
experience, wisdom, and curiosity and welcome the reader to
embrace a voyeuristic ride. Beautiful, haunting, and honest,
Repulsion Thrust is a powerful collection with a
refreshing voice and an open heart." Lori A. May, author of
stains
"poems of clarity,
epiphany and stark existential awareness. A bracing, imaginative
collection of poetry that rewards repeated reading." Sue Bond,
M/C Reviews
"Using
physics and philosophy, phobias and facets of astronomy and math,
the poems in Magdalena Ball’s new book, Repulsion Thrust,
are manuals and kones to scientifically and whimsically imagined
new worlds; they are forthright and experimental, they are futures
you really hope are not true. Reading her book is like reading
the poetic version of 1984 by George Orwell, where humans
are really not human any more. And you might even feel like you
are smarter, more hip to science." Nanette Rayman Rivera,
writer and editor
“A
heart-felt exploration of the "black dog" that has the courage to
leap between the crags and crevices of the daily round. Justin
Lowe, Bluepepper
"NGC4736, a.k.a.
Messier 74, a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici,
becomes poetic in Magdalena Ball’s science-and-tech-themed
collection of poems. Scientific phenomena NGC4736, black holes
and ice tunnels, amygdalas and the quintessential example of
existential uncertainty, Schrödinger’s cat, become metaphors for
the most intimate human thoughts and feelings. After all the
banal pseudopoetic cliches that clog modern poetry, this
collection is refreshing. This collection is to much modern
poetry what real science is to pseudo-scientific quackery.
To paraphrase one of Ball’s lines
in “Equinox,” she slices great slabs of poetry from her tongue
and pen. The buzzard light of dawn contrasts with the prophecy
that in our digital age, the flick of a switch can doom us to
literal and emotional darkness. Anyone who thinks science is
cold should take a microscope to Ball’s universe in which
electromagnetic radiation from emotional emissions creates a
tiny scientific revolution. This collection of poems is enough
to inspire creative writing majors to switch to astronomy and
physics. Perhaps maybe not. But Ball's verses will cause a
paradigm shift." Kristin Johnson, poet,
author, screenwriter and founder of the
Poet Warrior
Project
"Ball’s poetry is wholesome, blending the rational and the
irrational, the physical and the metaphysical, together with the
real and the surreal. The result is a an unusual and compelling
book. Repulsion Thrust is a poetry book to be read very
slowly in order to savour every word, every metaphor, and to
immerse oneself in the rich and colourful imagery, to be touched
by despair but also by hope and love." Beatriz Copello
