Sappho, reviewed

Roald Tweet of Rock Island Lines, WVIK 90.3fm, had early praise for Sappho: “In the title poem for this collection, Ellen Tsagaris muses that she should have listened to Sappho (a reference to her Greek roots). Fortunately, she did not. She realizes, as she says in the poem, ‘River Lines,’ the wine-dark seas and white beaches are not for her. Her heart, her inspiration, and her home is the Mississippi with its beer-colored water and its gritty, graveled banks. Rather than the flute and pan pipes of high poetry, she brings a whole orchestra of instruments: praise, parody, satire, romance, irony, awe, metrical and free verse. Perhaps Sappho should have listened to Ellen Tsagaris.”