Carol Altieri's deeply moving poems revolve around the death of her daughter, Alicia. Moving from a place of darkness where "The land is burned dark / and I can not find a taper to light," she ultimately affirms life by utilizing crocus as a metaphor for her spirit that is "always looking ahead, / stalwart even in late snow." Exploring Alaska, Costa Rica, the coast of Cornwall and New Zealand, Altieri struggles with loss, revealing, "over granite boulders, I reach / for handholds." These are not poems that can be skimmed over, forgetting the last while reading the next because they are...

A compelling and rare treat, The Jade Bower: New and Selected Poems by award-winning poet Carol Leavitt Altieri is a pendulum that swings between the brevity and misfortune of the natural world. A sheer and illuminating beauty is balanced on the long legs of poetics as the poet conveys the necessities of art and life in this collection that includes nearly ninety environmental humanistic poems. Broken into three sections, poems such as "Jesus Christ Lizards," "Viewing Giant Tortoises at Galapagos," "In Brazil's Rainforest Tribal Chief Marimo Fights Loggers" and "Wild Horses of Smoke Creek...