Mark L. Anderson

6B Pencils

Arts & Literature

“In 6B Pencils, Karen Mobley sharpens experiences down to a fine point, transmuting loss, grief, childhood, the pandemic, and the problems of aging into tight imagery. Through her eyes ants are transformed into ‘Friendly Formidae,’ a nuisance it becomes easy to love. But the writer wishes she could also love slugs ‘the way that birds do.’ She tries to love the revolting parts of life, the difficult and painful. She suggests the dead need our April Fools pranks more than the rest of us, that we save grief ‘for when it rains.’ By the end, these patient poems prove their contradictions: ‘It is possible to be happy and lonely at the same time.’”