Into This Room

In is a cyclical collection of poems that travel from mythic and wistful childhood through carefree teenage years to the reflection of having one's own family.

The book is divided into four sections. The first part, "In the Living," speaks of childhood experiences through the eyes of a young girl and then a teenager, who learns to sail with her father, visit an ailing grandmother in a nursing home, and "survive the growing up."

The emotions and images that surface are rich and universal. The second, "And the Dying," moves the reader gently into darker places. The author speaks of her father's death from prostate cancer, and her slow learning to let him go. Years later, she still sees the back of his head in the car ahead of her, and "hears his voice in every dream."

""There is Pleasure" is a series of poems that celebrate the pleasures of many different kinds of love. Physical desire burns on a cross-country road trip in "Still the Rush," and in a particular room in "Into This Room."

Desire drips from the pebbled skin of an orange in "Love Song to an Orange." And it becomes life itself on a long run, in the poem "10K." Finally, "And Always The Letting Go" is filled with the on-going struggle to adapt to inevitable changes. An aging mother who has trouble remembering, and a teenaged daughter who "practices forgetting."

The poetry here speaks of change, and learning to let go. The cycle completes itself, and begins again. Pain and pleasure, expressed in images and words on the page.

Poetry, Paperback, $17.95
ISBN 0-88753-361-2