In Blue Venus, Lisa Russ Spaar explores the intimate relationship between the sensual and the sacred. Her nocturnal poems weave themselves into the very fabric of private fervor–lyric, sexual, spiritual–beginning with Dusk and continuing on until Dawn. Fierce and giving, Spaar’s exquisite verse isolates essential moments of vulnerability and wonder. A series on insomnia–in the voices of some notable insomniacs–is among the most moving extended sequences in recent memory. Elsewhere, she traces poetry back to its primordial roots–prayer, lullabye, mourning, exaltation. Propelled throughout by a resolute belief in the relationship between the human and the cosmic Blue Venus is a brilliant new star in poetry’s firmament (Carol Muske-Dukes).