Review: Flux Lines by John C Mannone

There are two constants in the poetry of John Mannone: love and science… And they are intertwined--his poems flow effortlessly between poles of desire and precious, precise knowledge.

In the world of poetry there is no one who can mine science for metaphor the way Mannone does. Nor move to love so naturally.

--Roald Hoffmann, chemist and writer, professor emeritus at Cornell University and co-recipient of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

John C. Mannone’s Flux Lines offers a lyrical melding of worlds: love, science, sensuality, geography, heart, astronomy, and wit. The poet knows his science, and knows how to cut a line in a heartbreaking rhythm. Love is the unifying force here, dynamic movement is a constant. The poet is equally at home in mystery and in certainty, in wonder and in the swing of late fall vines or his lover’s hair. A magical volume, this is one that readers will return to for song and hope, for sustenance.
'Marilyn Kallet, author of How Our Bodies Learned, Black Widow Press and the 2018, 2019 Knoxville Poet Laureate