“Ace Boggess’s ESCAPE ENVY is a book of reckoning, a collection that takes clear-eyed but tender measure of what we lose when we lose ourselves—to addiction, heartache, incarceration, and to time’s ravenous passage. In richly layered love poems, elegies, and portraits of minor catastrophes, Boggess examines what imprisons us and what can set us free. Sometimes, the beauty of a rose garden saves us as “[w]e breathe in until we suffocate / from pleasure.”  Sometimes, a person’s recollected love continues, despite long absence, to salvage us “again & again ad infinitum.” And always, there are poems, like these poems, offering us succor, singing us home.”

             —Francesca Bell, author of BRIGHT STAIN

 “In these vibrant poems of philosophy, desire, and identity, Boggess exhibits a true talent for imbuing natural, experiential detail with authenticity, layered meanings, and lyricism. But ESCAPE ENVY is so much more than that; it’s also brimming with powerful meditations grounded in the familiar that eventually open us up to something far greater. It takes risks by exploring sincere, often harsh realities through rich, accessible language. These poems are intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging, written by someone with clear eyes and an open, curious heart that shies neither from the darkness nor the light that, together, define the human condition.”

             —John Sibley Williams, author of AS ONE FIRE CONSUMES ANOTHER

 “We breathe in until we suffocate/ from pleasure, when one of us/ speaks the safe word, & we go. — ‘Rose Garden, Ritter Park’ Whenever I want to steep in brilliant language, revel in a poem’s depth, rut around in its darkness, I read Ace Boggess. His singular voice pulls me into his words and won’t let go. These poems crisscross the landscape: a car, a burger, a twist of phrase, traffic jams, a teenage crush, or a failed love affair. His is a world where nothing is off limits: dementia as relevant as a river, his depiction of prison life, a brutal beatdown, desperate as lukewarm instant coffee, no cream.”

             —Alexis Rhone Fancher, author of THE DEAD KID POEMS; poetry editor, CULTURAL WEEKLY

 “Ace Boggess is the bareknuckle brawler of today’s poetry.”

             —Greg Leatherman, managing editor of ECO MAGAZINE