Acqua Alta

In her recent book, Acqua Alta, Bedell Phillips voyages through a sacred trust, love of a dog and grandmother, serious medical quandaries, sexual escapades, a quest for a good man. This book's odyssey addresses the current solution for historic flooding in Venice, poisonous water chemicals, a Miami drug lord, new age kid's version of blackness, the horror of long terrorist history and ends with the terror of October 7. "The words of Bedell Phillips guide us to discover slivers of the sublime in even nature's subtlest unfoldings, and in the quotidian delights and small cruelties of being human at this specific moment. She also takes an unflinching look at world events with poems that indict the cruelty and carelessness of many people in power. Acqua Alta deftly combines it all in a collection of poems that keep readers surprised while leaving us wiser." - Ellen Benson