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Read sample	Christening the Dancer by John Amen
	The poems included in John Amen's Christening the Dancer address a variety of dark issues, including childhood abuse, addiction, mental illness, and suicide. The speaker plunges into his own painful history--replete with allusions to familial and romantic dysfunctions, as well as struggles with alcohol and drugs--and, in so doing, invites the reader to accompany him, to be both a witness and revisit the unhealed parts of his or her own life. Through immersing himself in the grief that his descent facilitates, the speaker initiates a process of personal integration. As a result, a catharsis and powerful healing occurs. By putting the spotlight on and fully divulging his wounds, the speaker is, in essence, able to transcend and triumph over them; in turn, experiencing a newfound sense of empowerment. Likewise, the reader, inspired to embark upon a parallel journey, is led to plumb the shadowy places of his or her own story and, in so doing, emerge from the reading experience with a heightened sense of wholeness, a deeper sense of connection to the life force at large.
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	Product Reviews
	© Clayton A. Couch (excerpt from review in www.sidereality.com/volume3issue1/) Christening the Dancer is a collection worth reading simply because its courageous lines are composed by a generous, and unflinchingly curious, poet. It is a collection about voice, for we are clearly witnessing a poet finding his own within its contents. This being Amen's first book, it is not the product of a poet at the height of his powers -- if, again, you believe in such things; but within the collection's quest for lyrical unity, we find ourselves compelled to follow a dance through to its finale. That Amen's rhythmical explorations of inner landscapes are interesting is a testament to his talent as a maker of images and carefully-crafted lines, and as he continues to grow as a poet, the "invisible architectures," to borrow a term from Barbara Guest, that support the poems of Christening the Dancer will begin to grow into his words less tentatively. Certainly, Amen's fluency with the ways in which invisible structures intertwine with visible ones marks him as a young poet to be read, now and in the future. .