Reviews of Animal Purpose
“We’re all connected: human, animal, earth, sky, flowers, water. Michelle Burke writes lyrically and on the edge of possibilities, about the animal kingdom. She has an exceptional ability to translate a common animal into a vision or metaphor with restraint via dignified stanzas that credit the materialized world of creatures.”
— The Washington Independent Review of Books
“The world of living things pulsates and hums throughout Animal Purpose, Michelle Y. Burke’s debut collection of poetry. The poems contained here speak softly but with great precision and feeling. Burke’s revelations are ebullient rather than explosive: more akin to scattering flocks of birds than detonations.”
— American Microreviews & Interviews
“Animal Purpose is a collection of deep optimism and subtle craft from a poet intimate with both the rural Midwest and the megalopolis of New York. She has seen, it appears, the best and worst of both these worlds, and while her intellect has chosen the latter, these poems would seem to hint her heart is still with the former. The soil of her imagination is too rich with wild things to leave them behind, and she shows us our own place among them.”
— Fourth & Sycamore
Artist Michael Shapiro created this beautiful broadside of “Pacifisms.”
