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In the scent of honey
bees filled in combs built
between her rafters..."
Elliott's heartfelt poetry collection evokes nostalgia, images of the past, and long-lost memories. The poet touches everyday experiences, such as family, daily activities, love, and images of nature. Her poetry creates strong visual imagery and gives readers a glimpse into the poet's life.
Her poems are presented as free-verse, and the text flows down the page in tight columns, occasionally punctuated by black and white photographs. The collection conjures a certain lightness of feeling, as is evident in most of her pieces. For example, "Summer 1947" evokes a typical pastoral scene with tractors humming in the background and a grandmother knitting on the front porch while honey bees are busy building honeycombs above her in the rafters. In "Last Night," the poet dreams about when she was a young girl, skating on ice. A common scene from a kitchen is presented in "Voice of Living"...
…knife against plate
teeth against fork
vacuum roaring
refrigerator humming...
Another poem worth noticing is "These Hands" about all that a pair of human hands can accomplish...
…My hands held the broken bird
while your father set its wing
to mending, and nursed it
back to flight...
The author is an accomplished novelist as well as a poet, and her work received the Mary Brennen Clapp Poetry Award, among several others. All in all, this is a perfect book for lovers of accessible poetry, and it's compact enough to be tucked in one's bag for a quick read on the run.