⸺Katherine Bode-Lang, author of The Reformation, winner of the American Poetry ReviewHonickman First Book Prize
Aesthetic heir of Elizabeth Bishop, Mary Shay McGuire is also a painter. Her eye touches everything, feels deeply, and transforms each surface and anecdote with heart-rending restraint. Rich in the irrepressible objects and emotions of her Irish ancestry, near the sea in New England, and a life lived deliberately, her poems speak to our noisy days with wisdom, true beauty, and quiet art. Read this book more than once; let it teach you to see miracles.
⸺Julia Spicher Kasdorf, author Poetry in America
Mary Shay McGuire is an artist at recognizing the pattern in gardens, in a seaside cottage, and in behavior⸺the repetitions that create beauty and traditions as well as destroy lives. She takes on fearlessly the question of how to write about the past without nostalgia. In her poems, she works through the intricate relationships of mother, daughter, sister, and lover in language that is both precise and straightforward. Finishing this collection, I was surprised to look up and find myself somewhere other than in McGuire's landscape; it is so vividly drawn.
⸺Charlotte Holmes, author of The Glass Labyrinth
Related Subjects
Poetry