Robert Zimmermann

Many know that I’m a big fan of S.M. Boyce’s work. She’s the author of The Grimoire Saga, and it’s become one of my favorite series. But that is prose writing, and A Life for Sale, this is poetry. Not everyone who can write beautiful and engaging prose can switch over to verse with ease, but that’s what Boyce seems to have done.

In her first published poem, Boyce doesn’t show the shaky hand of a first time poet. This poem surprised me with how well it conjured up images of each item “for sale”, along with the memories surrounding them. And the emotions written between the lines shown through expertly, but weren’t overbearing.

I’m not always good at putting my reaction to a poem into words, so I won’t try to elaborate much more. But between reading this poem and then listening to Boyce’s recording (it’s a bonus I wasn’t expecting) at the end of the book, I know A Life for Sale will be a poem I come back to time and time again. I also hope that we’ll see more poetry from Boyce. She’s showed me that she’s not only a master of prose, but can also stand side-by-side with many of my favorite poets.