Tear Down

by Ali Riley

A disgruntled Disney™ employee, a Spanish mystic and a fever-ridden Supervixen are a few of the tenants of Tear Down. An assemblage of myth, architectural narrative and trigger-tale, the collection draws inspiration from Catholic saints, garage bands, the Seven African Powers, performance art, and the history of lipstick. Whether its characters are fasting in the desert, casting spells in suburban kitchens, or losing an eye in the gender wars, Tear Down takes a wry and visionary look at impermanence, the meaning of home, and finding solace in a fallen world.

Reviews

The trajectory of Riley’s poetry has yet to come close to its peak. This book is a necessary exploration without severing her roots: a fine, complex work. ~Andrew Vaisius, Prairie Fire Magazine

Riley has a wonderful ear for rhythm and tempo. The impact of her poetry comes almost entirely from her perfect control of tone. ~Alex Rettie, Alberta Views

Tear Down consists of intimate, sharp-edged poems that pry open women’s inner lives, veering between quick-tongued, confessional-style lyrics and something much more open in form. Riley’s work is sassy, fun and dangerous: much more like New York than like the rural locales she’s lived in lately. ~Lee Shedden, Calgary Herald

Riley fuses pageantry with sound, she contrasts the urban landscape of drug dealing and petty crime with the Waldron Pond gone wrong rural scene. Her poetic Third Eye shifts from snapshot to prose poem to cinema veritee documentary. ~Anne Burke, Prairie Journal

Referencing such unlikely bedfellows as Kafka and Patti Smith, Zarathustra, St. John and The Silver Jews, Riley, reliable trafficker of the sweet unexpected, will not be pinned down. These are poems alive and pulsing as desire. ~Laurie Fuhr, Fast Forward Magazine