In this new collection of poems, Ann Elizabeth Carson keenly observes the fullness of life. Through perceptive and detailed descriptions, she creates a poetics of sustained layered reflections. While her rich language allows us to perceive the human condition mirrored in nature, we may also choose to read very personal experiences in their timeless cycles.
- Pia Bouman, Artistic Director, Pia Bouman School for Ballet and Creative Movement.
Ann Elizabeth Carson's work zeros in on some of the often unspoken, but universal, preoccupations of people nearing the end of life's journey. Carson's subtle, yet accessible, poems risk "one fierce question at a time" as she fearlessly excavates the "layered mulch of memory." Although at times she may feel helpless, frustrated and even out of control, the octogenarian eye is clear and unclouded. She untangles the skeins of her life and transforms trauma into songs of celebration, drawing on the visceral comfort offered by the creatures of the water and the air to soothe the "thin humming ache" of sorrow. Writing amid island sights and sounds provides rejuvenation and altered perspective - "voices sing in the winds" and the long sought-after peace spills over the page. This volume will give all who have mourned renewed hope and inspiration.
- Margo Little, author, Portraits of Spirit Island: The Manitoulin School of Art Comes of Age
In Ann's poetry, images become language; a language that directly grips the observer/reader. We come to know by the word and by the image. Like Plato's cave we get glimpses of light among the shadows.
- Jane Burns, painter/printmaker