The Singing Is My Favorite Part

The Singing Is My Favorite Part is a collection of poems that sing the escape of our ordinary world and how the ordinary world is in our escape. It does so with a lovely voice, keen images, and perfect comic timing. Brown is able to write desire and fulfillment through multiple forms-whether villanelle, pantoum, sestina, or free-verse lyric. The beauty of this collection's technique lies in the nuance of details: the "hands neatly folded in her lap / like wedding napkins, not in prayer;" the "skin like a drawing under tracing;" and when "the spider slips / past a slack lip and you swallow / him whole." That's how this wonderful work takes on the world-in a quiet devouring.