Smith, Patricia. Teahouse of the Almighty.(Brief article)(Book review)

Smith, Patricia. Teahouse of the Almighty. Coffee House, dist. by Consortium. Sept. 2006. c.114p. ISBN 1-56689-193-0 [ISBN 978-1-56689-193-6]. pap. $15. POETRY

Proper nouns--Smith (Slamnation) calls them "mouthful nouns"--arresting verbs, and striking metaphors crack like lightning in the free verse poems in Smith's new collection. With their feminist leanings, their Biblical allusions, and their many references to newspaper articles, these performance poems place violence beside passion, love, lust, nature, and religion. Creating a stunning mix of sound and sense, the best poems become a metaphor for the power of poetry. A poem like "Stop the Presses," for …