Finishing Line Press · 2021
Stellar
… In a voice that is always urgent and intimate, Palmer writes beautifully of longing and mystery… In this disorienting time, it is so wonderful to read a poet who helps us understand better where we stand… “Yes,” she writes, “there is sand here. But water too.”
There is a dreamlike quality in the way the poems of Stellar summon reverie from the natural world. Esther Lim Palmer’s language is rhythmic and reverential, engaging the reader with a quiet but profound sense of wonder… Hovering between the real and imagined landscape, Palmer’s skill is like a sleight-of-hand, her poetry a subtle and lyrical vehicle for unexpected rewards. Her magic comes in as “the wind leaves words outside the window / cracked open; words like invisible gifts.”
