Whatever the case, that spirit powers poems like “A Walk Through a Canyon" which finds Jean both ecstatic and contemplative: “in the long time to come, perhaps/ i will remember this is my footprint/ on the red sand, beneath these monoliths of stone/ frozen by time …” Landscape, weather, and time forever reflect each other in Jean’s imagination, a tendency common in dreamy Midwesterners (Jean hails from North Dakota) who have invested years in watching seasons unfold across those limitless heavens. In the playful “White” snow covers trees and ground “as if the sky had fallen down,” while “I Am” finds her engaging in the age-old pleasure of dreaming along with the clouds, which she strikingly likens to “giant leaves / floating across a pond of sky.”
Pleasing imagery appears throughout the collection (“The bush was buttoned up/ with red berries”), even in poems concerning more human topics, such as a grandmother’s mending basket or fleeting memories of youth. Still, the book’s bulk and abundance can overwhelm, with the strongest and most specific poems outnumbered by slighter ones, variations on established themes, whimsical doggerel, and lines whose power is diminished by familiar imagery or inconsistent archaic phrasing, like “’tis” or “thee.”
Takeaway: A lifetime’s worth of warmly observational poetry, focused on time, nature, and arresting imagery.
Great for fans of: Mary Ryan, Ted Kooser.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A-
Editing: B
Marketing copy: B+
