G. Frink's

Four of Western North Carolina's best poets: (left-right) Emoke B'Racz, Cathy Smith Bowers, Glenis Redmond, Pat Riviere-Seel.

Photographed by Rimas Zailskas.

Pat Riviere-Seel, whose volume of poetry entitled "The Serial Killer's Daughter" was reviewed here recently, is one of four poets featured on the cover of the current issue of Verve, a western North Carolina magazine for women.

Ms. Riviere-Seel is also the author of No Turning Back Now, part of the New Women's Voices Series from Finishing Line Press. That volume's titular poem is taken from a triumph over fear of snakes, life and love.

In it she writes of snakes:

Truth is, I'm drawn to their shiny bodies,
the way they slither along the ground like a silk rope.
They could curl around you like love
and choke the life right out
or charm you and clear your mind.

That is, it seems to me, the poetry of a woman who has learned that love can be as deadly as any snake, and as enlightening. The poetry of a woman who, among poets, is one of North Carolina's best.