Properties of Matter

Properties of Matter is that rare book that encompasses both the universal and the particular. Individual poems are metaphysical in tone, often anthropomorphic and elemental in imagery, and become, as the book progresses, a vast, collective exercise in metaphor. A reader need not die, like Audubon and Stubbs's specimens, to understand the true nature of the subject, but, I suggest, one reading will not be sufficient to truly appreciate the breadth and depth of this collection.
—Alan Catlin
“Round and calm,” like the moon that leads us into this gorgeous collection, Joan Colby’s detailed eye illuminates everything. The poems in Properties of Matter are lessons in how to observe and live in both the natural world that surrounds us and the inner world that moves us through the days and seasons of our lives. “Phosphorescent as ghosts”, her words will draw you in. And you will be glad. Gentle, honest, unflinching, and full of mystery, this book is a must read.
—Linda Blaskey, The Broadkill Review
In Joan Colby’s new collection of poems Properties of Matter we are shadowed by what we only hear about. Like eyes in a forest of night, these poems don’t miss a muscle we move as the pages turn. As one line suggests, I feel like I’m “Everywhere here / In the path of disaster”. To read the work again is to read it for the first time, and as Colby insists, “Given time, such darkness is endless.”
—George Bishop