Books

Yogesh Patel's poems in "2½" are “sparks of fire”, igniting language into flames of inspiration in a world that fails us, but only if we permit it. Patel magnifies the humanitarian failures in our world society with poetry of vision that is at once daring and profoundly humane. These are tales of hopes...and lost dreams, rising out of the simmering ash of society's arrested conscience, into the healing blaze of universal truths. One cannot fail to be inspired by the power of compassion in these poems.

-James Ragan, author of "The Hunger Wall" and "The Chanter's Reed," and recipient of a 

Poetry Society of America citation and Swan Foundation Humanitarian Award

These poems are filled with recurring potent images of place and personal histories which successfully invite the reader into intimate spaces. Those spaces include everything from socks to shaving brush but also bravely address disturbing and distressing subject matter. The violence at the heart of this collection is never expressed directly but infuses the poetry, so that the reader is left shaken and thoughtful. 

- Maura Dooley, Judge’s comment, Aryamati Prize 2023