Francesca Bell: What Small Sound

The way I am choosing a poetry book is to read the first poem. If the first poem could grab my attention, I would read the rest. The first sentence of Francesca Bell’s What Small Sound reads: “Every two minutes, an American woman is raped.” I read the entire collection on my commute. Bell’s writing is raw, poignant, and personal. My favorites were “Jubilations,” “Instrument Left in Its Case,” “Becoming,” “Tutor,” and “Love in the Time of Covid-19.”