Waspfish

"Val Dering Rojas is a poet of the elements, as if earth, fire, air, water and aether were contained in her quill. 'There is no science/which knows my fear/of how the land will love us, ' she says, intimating that a true, natural, mysterious force is at work, which may very well be found in her ability to limn the ineffable with poetry. Rojas' poems vary widely even in this small collection--prose poem, surrealist dream, Ferlinghetti-like line breaks--no form seems beyond her. Her titles alone suggest a map for the questing soul: "Awake," "Loss," "How to Leave the World." These are powerful, musical evocations of modern life, written with blood and daring and a gimlet eye."

--Corey Mesler, author of Opaque Melodies that Would Bug Most People