Paying homage to the hardboiled crime-noir writing of Raymond Chandler, Diann Blakely’s second collection of poetry plays on the dark desires and lusty appetites that motivate and move us. Originally published in 2000, Farewell, My Lovelies delivers unflinching truths harnessed in musical eloquence. Within these poems, Blakely visits funeral parlors and lovers’ trysts; backyard barbeques and class reunions; the markets of the Yucatan and the death of Kurt Cobain.

With expert precision she is able to expose the soft underbelly of the American experience, laying it bare, displaying our vulnerability, old wounds, and still jagged scars. Her phrases burn brightly, touching on the outer boundaries of our shared sensory experiences—referencing the sacred and the profane, the banal and the extraordinary.