A little daylight left

Kay presents a full-hearted collection that illuminates the poet's rare gift for careful and compassionate seeing of details, situations, people, and relationships as well as her ability to identify, even in the hardest moments, astonishments both small and large. When she describes how it feels to be a young woman braced against the frightening gaze of a stranger on public transit ("I Am Seventeen & Everyone"), the reader, too, feels the fear and tension as well as the relief of "narrow escapes" when the moment passes. In "Jakarta, January," Kay writes of mass killings and loss of innocence for herself and her students, and readers are left holding their breath, occupying the silence after the poem's students "float up / out of their seats like tiny ghosts & are gone." These are poems of universal transitions--before and after youth, love, health, and expectation--but throughout, Kay reminds us, "the way you notice / can be a weapon or an act of love". This collection offers a model for choosing the latter.

Kay's (All Our Wild Wonder) newest collection invites readers to confront the difficult emotions and experiences often avoided--heartbreak, loss, fear, and the uncertainties of change. The beauty of the author's work lies in the vivid imagery and poignant anecdotes that linger long after reading. Each poem creates a space for reflection, allowing the rawness of human emotion to surface in unexpected ways. One particularly striking moment captures decay in haunting detail: "grey or black even brown sometimes growing a soft green fur / far uglier in their living than their death." Lines like these transform ordinary observations into powerful metaphors for grief, change, and resilience. The collection does not offer easy resolutions but instead acknowledges the complexity of pain and healing. With an honest and evocative voice, Kay crafts a moving exploration of what it means to endure and emerge from life's most difficult moments. VERDICT A compelling read for anyone willing to sit with discomfort and find beauty in the process of facing life head-on.--Jessica Calaway