Clarity Between Clouds

In Clarity Between Clouds, Susan Ioannou’s disarmingly intimate voice strikes piercingly close to the harsh realities of existence, breaking open to reveal startling insights and sly bits of aphoristic wisdom. For Ioannou, poetry is a highly personal act which surfaces from everyday existence, permitting her to confront mortality and discover what is truly human. But Susan Ioannou’s world is by no means narrowly composed. Rather, the poems in this collection expand beyond the everyday to include a dialogue with a Mannerist painting, a clever pastiche of Hugh MacDiarmid, and a sun-struck idyll in a Florentine piazza, to uncover the commonality of emotions even in the most exotic locations.

“Ioannou’s work has a street-wise toughness, coupled with an eye for detail.” — Books in Canada

“An experience poet who makes her poems as tight as a dancer’s leotard.” — Poetry Canada Review