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everything we touched this day
was holy"
From the poet laureate of Texas comes a new collection in which ordinary objects and instances inspire insights and wisdom. For example, in the title poem, a widow, with much reason to grieve, rejoices over an ice dispenser. Similarly, a belt in “Evening Dress” is both inert and dangerous to the one watching a man dress. Meanwhile, love is a connection so integral that there is “no room for even wax” in the poem “Sincerity.”
Beginning with “Water,” the poems proceed following themes from one to the next. While, collectively, they form a story of the landscape where the author grew up, her family and friends, and aging, each poem is a crystalline moment offered in gratitude for life. Even an unpleasant encounter becomes a cause for celebration as it calls to mind a beautiful butterfly in “What I Really Want to Say to the Difficult Person at the Cocktail Party.” Some poems make light of difficult times, like cocktail parties and menopause, lament the world’s woes, pay tribute to people, or are odes to previous times by honoring the present moment. Water defines the collection’s pace, which is at times mellifluous and at others churning. Never stagnant, the sequence of poems produces a hopeful tone.
The questions many poems pose stand out as the collection’s significant contribution: “Who says water / isn’t a living, laughing thing?” Rhetorical questions, such as “How can we not feel the love / in the hushed roar of this world,” answer themselves, drawing attention to the overlooked, simple things that speak the world’s love most clearly. By asking something of the reader, they draw the audience into the poet’s careful, compassionate perception. Although not everyone might relate to the details she shares of her life, the poet's openness translates. Her poems are invitations into joyful, intentional living.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review
A 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award Poetry Category Honorable Mention