Heart-breaking and life-affirming, Wendell Hawken's WHITE BIRD testifies to the human spirit. This poem sequence, told from the caregiver's perspective, chronicles a beloved's cancer from diagnosis to death. The speaker's farm shifts from background to foreground with its daily chores and animal population, both domestic and wild. With an eye for the transformative in the everyday, Hawken is a poet in command of her craft. Her language is restrained, yet lyrical, as these poems remain accessible with a clear narrative focus reminiscent of Frost. Her images are original: "Wasps have taken to...
Heart-breaking and life-affirming, Wendell Hawken's WHITE BIRD testifies to the human spirit. This poem sequence, told from the caregiver's perspectiv...