Review of Child Ward of the Commonwealth by Eileen Cleary

Poignant to the point of defining poignancy, Eileen Cleary’s first book of poems, Child Ward of the Commonwealth, shakes the soul with her truth-telling narratives of childhood trauma and disfunction. Cleary somehow melds a mature poetic sensibility with a child’s wide-eyed ability to see the world’s wreckage with wonder and awe. Her persona relates adventures of fairy-tale-like brutality, not unlike fables from the Brothers Grimm. However, Cleary’s anecdotes are not mythologized; they are direct and very personal. For more of my review of Child Ward of the Commonwealth go here: 
http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2020/02/child-ward-of-state-by-eileen-cleary.html