Critical Commentary
I was excited to read Julie Cummings' poetry collection, RIDE OF MY LIFE. "I am riding my bike home. / I am sharpening my pencils." That's exactly what happens as I read through her book-- her poems hit home with the sharp point of her work. Diane Glancy
(Julie) Cummings uses direct address to woo you when she begins with “let me tell you. . .” and she does tell you, the way lovers expand their love by speaking to each other about their love. And she captures love in process, as in Blues Babe, where she acknowledges “what is being composed here.” She speaks confidently, bravely, with a comforting presence to a you that might be a particular You but also might just be You the reader, the one who wants to ask: where are you?….I’m here, the poet says, at “the edge of the bed,” or “riding my bike home.” And what are you doing? you ask her. “I’m writing this poem,” she says.- Jackie St. Joan
