Book Reviews:

Critical insights
Unlike vapor, Joy Gaines Friedler's poetry is dense. The density lies in the insights she shares about ordinary and extraordinary aspects of life. She has such a way with words that it takes very few of them to get her point across. She writes of "cloud's misty edges," "white pencil on white paper," and "fog that hovers above the quiet water." These images convey a richness of meaning that far exceed the simple words she uses.

I look forward to more writings from this keen observer of the human condition, laden with layers of meaning that invite the imagination to produce fruitful thoughts that inspire valuable insights.

Review by a Newly Inspired Reader of Poetry
Ms. Friedler begins section III with an epigraph from Pablo Neruda: "I asked of everything/if it had/something more." If there's a theme in Friedler's poetic vision and intention, it is this: new eyes, freshness of perspective, new ways of looking at the things with which we're all confronted.

We're told that the most stirring of all developments is the child's "Aha!" at the moment, the very moment, of clarity - this occurs in Joy Friedler's work, over and over again. Her poems about her friend Jim, who died of AIDS, about Linda, about her dad, are the very antithesis of personal self-indulgence: they invite all kinds of very human empathy, but more. Reading this book is a conversation. She invites you in. Lay-out the coffee and cake! Consider this opening line from "After," about her friend Linda: "I sat on the porch swing listening to bees/ praying in the lilacs." And then, the "snapper" of an ending: "I sat on the porch swing listening to the gospel of bees, / surveyed her life, / then changed the ending." That this poet is able to combine what I consider to be a very potent free-verse with such accessibility is like a miracle.

These poems range, as our lives do, from Eastern market where "a seller of flowers told us to go to Vivio's/get yourselves a Bloody Mary and call it a day" To "Capitalism South Carolina," where "Jesus lives across from a miniature golf course." And to Eve herself "with an appetite for knowledge/and an untamed touch." Such a ride. Thank you, poet, troubadour.

Like Vapor reminds us how poetry transcends the individual and the common place with poems that are narrative and lyrical. Friedler's imagery and music show her tenderness and compassion. She writes truths of human experience: a pheasant crossing the highway, the house around the corner, a friend dying of AIDS. In these experiences we are assured of humanity, our existence and our eventual extinction, with a grace and comfort that uplilfts our spirits and encourages our own consideration of life.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6115100-like-vapor