(selected haibun 2004-2024)
Cover art by Kevin Beary
Publisher: MacQ Books
Release date: 8 March 2025
ISBN: 978-8-3305-6606-8
6x9 inches // 128 pages
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Cover art Widow with Shawl
© by Kevin Beary |
To paraphrase the priceless advice of one of my poetry mentors and favorite poets, local to my area; frequent advice to his mentees and students: “The best poets read poetry. Read, read, read.”
06-26-26:
A book that, upon my first session of reading, had me so wrapped up & intrigued & enamored that I kind of got in trouble at work (I kind of forgot I was at work for a little bit).
Roberta Beary does a great job of cutting to the root of the wound and exposing it, in such a quick & sly way that you’d miss it if you blinked—but you don’t miss it, because you feel it, beyond vision.
Crazy Bitches, although (reverse) chronologically ordered, contains poems that exist without/beyond time. It is a relatable happenstance; the way the mind bounces back and forth and presents fragmented memories, all strung up in a row. Roberta’s words and stories and memories exist without time, which is to say that they are timeless, and they are relatable. They make me feel less alone.
Reading in bed: Bolesh with Beary’s Crazy Bitches
Roberta (not unlike myself) is a Weaver of Words. This means that they are also a Weaver/Creator of Worlds. Their words, and worlds, exist without time. The reader can place each poem upon any timeline, including their own, and apply it to their lives by easily inserting themselves & people they’ve known into the character roles: villain, damsel in distress, mother, daughter, brother, friend, main character, narrator, and more.
Roberta’s words create immersive worlds, and an immersive experience; going beyond the page/pages.
06-30-26, middle of the night:
I have finished reading the book in its entirety.
Roberta’s work, and presumably, possibly Roberta themselves, exist in the poet’s world in their mind; their inner landscapes, a combination of inner & outer darkness & light. The Poet’s Mind, which I have myself, can often feel isolating, independent, like the only one around—it’s good to know others share it within themselves.
The poet’s mind is a world of dreams, not just the positive kind, but actual dreams—a swirling of fact and/or fiction, stained scrapbook pages, dusty boxes of photo albums. The place where memory and dreams meld; the subconscious. It rings true, and it echoes within the hallways of our mind, but it’s foggy & hazy by design.
Words cut clear through the fog, with precision. Roberta doesn’t skirt around the painful truth—they highlight painful trauma, no trigger warning attached, the way life has dished up those types of traumas for both them & me (and many others). They made me wonder: does poetry need trigger/content warnings? Do we need to soften the telling of the blow we ourselves have been shattered by, before gluing ourselves back together piece by piece in response, never to be the same? How do we warn a reader of that?
Crazy Bitches is (reverse) chronologically and alphabetically ordered, which provides a type of structure amongst a beautiful, painful, chaotic array of poems that reflect the human experience, condition, & mind. It almost needs no structure; the disarray is a welcomed dose of reality for all who read.
Roberta does an incredible job of citing sources and rabbit-hole invitations throughout, and in the concluding pages. This creates a sense of both trust and intimacy between author and reader; one can listen to the recommended song during reading the poem about it, or dive into a background on a photograph or painting after reading Roberta’s haibun about it.
If you have a poet’s mind, want to step into the mind of a poet, or just want to read something fucking real in this insane world, read Crazy Bitches.
—Review was first posted to Instagram in June 2026, and appears here with the author’s permission.
Based in New York’s North Country region, Cassandra Bolesh is a poet by day and a figure-drawing model by evening. Their poetry appears in Potsdam Pride; Volume One (May 2025) of Potsdam Salvage (the collab zine by Potsdam Pride and Potsdam DIY); and Boreal Zine Issue 19, Lughnasadh: Laundry (August 2025). Their poems and photographs have been featured in multiple SLC Arts Exhibits (St. Lawrence County Arts Council, with gallery space in Potsdam, New York).
