Lampblack & Ash

There is something utterly in thrall here, honey-slow and fixated. Driven by obsession--in particular, obsession with the legendary French poet, Robert Desnos--Muench's identification with a true self beyond the self's known truth is startling.

--from the introduction by Carol Muske-Dukes "Simone's poems have a confidence and sophistication of what I like to call intentionality. Also wit, grace, poise, and a relationship to writing beyond self-referential feeling."

--Anne Waldman "Lush, sprouting, sensuous images line-by-line, adopting myth freely, Muench's poems are volatile explosives, circling beauty."--James Tate