Genetics

Poignant, frank, sometimes funny as hell, Seaton's Genetics invites the reader into the stunning and the mundane, an evolving life where Sappho and Popeye, pirates and saints, speed demons, and a busload of bass players appear and vanish. Some might consider Genetics a mode of magical transportation. Enjoy the ride!  

Maureen Seaton's subject is womanhoodan experience she presents as, by turns, a liturgically voluptuous sacrament and the kind of party that prompts the neighbors to call the cops. Her poems always make me feel lucky in my gender, doubly lucky in loving women. Carol Anshaw

In Genetics, Maureen Seaton traces old roots and recipes and clears space for new ones. The experience of reading these poems is like that of savoring curry, the blending of a thing unto itself, though each spice manifests in its own sweet time. In her daring use of language, Seaton is the seasoned cook--enticing readers first with the scent of cumin and ginger dancing in oil, then the fire of chili, all, in the end, melding into a single flavor that grows and lingers in the mouth. Holly Iglesias.