Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Twichell's first retrospective collection gathers poems from six previous books and adds nearly a book's worth of new poems, all in an accessible, plainspoken style of mostly free verse that renders poems as crystal clear as they are deep. Again and again, Twichell confronts the fact of loss and the transitory nature of life with acceptance and a melancholy hope spurred by close attention paid to the natural world: "Creatures are born from atoms, from air,/ parentless, and drift like satellites/ out of a snowy tree," reads one early poem. One of Twichell's greatest skills is to depict nature as transcendent without making it seem anything but plainly natural, if mysterious: "Gravity draws down to me a halo/ whipped up of holy dust// or dust from outer space." Many poems also reflect Buddhist attitudes, reasons, perhaps, for their deep calm and acceptance. "Now when I can't sleep/ I say as a prayer/ the names of all the little brooks," she says. The new poems confront mortality with the same willingness: "A door blew open, and a black river/ flowed into my house." Many readers will find a companion in this book. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This long-awaited volume of selected poems showcases the best of Twichell's six published collections, covering 30 years of writing, while also highlighting the new. As she wisely observes, "I knew nothing of the fences words make/ in the mind, or that I would devote/ the first half of my life to building them/ and the second to tearing them down." Exhibiting a profound reverence for life's mysteries and often inhabiting the natural world, Twichell continues to explore the certainties and uncertainties of life: birth, death, becoming, love, and loss. Many of her new poems consider childhood and the effects of imagination, while others delve into memory: "Aren't memories just/ dreams of consciousness/ clouds snagged in a tree?" And many explore the act of writing. At the heart of her writing is a calming reverence, much like zazen, the act of sitting for meditation. Indeed, these poems are meditative and calming, yet questioning: "How easily mind swims into silence:/ a faraway floor of stones wavering in the sun." VERDICT This wonder-filled and anticipated volume is highly recommended for contemporary collections.-Karla Huston, Appleton, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
