I Will Not Name It Except To Say

“In her vibrant I Will Not Name It Except to Say, Sharkey teaches her throat ‘the sounds of a new language.’ Sharkey’s lyrical precision, wild imagery, and heart-breaking tenderness weave connections and trouble, ranging from the pleasures of old love to improvisations on German Expressionism, family memory, a provocative spiritualism, and difficult history. In every poem, Sharkey makes her readers strive with the poet to speak new words and to see through the searing perceptions that Sharkey’s poems have made newly possible.” —Janice Harrington