Rita A. Simmonds' poems offer a soulful account of life in New York, not the mythical, magical destination of tourists, but the grim, gritty city eight million people call home. SOULS IN THE CITY bears witness to the lived experience of real New Yorkers, from the young couple falling in love in Goldberg's Pizzeria to the married couple having their Friday night fight against the backdrop of R&B on their car radio, from Jesus the Beggar sitting on the bare pavement to the Wise Woman searching the snowy streets for the sleeping Christ Child, from the visionary beauty of the Verrazano Bridge by...

In these poems, Rita Simmonds breathes fresh new life into the Christmas narrative and more. Reverent yet reinvigorating, delightful yet profound, personal yet universal, these poems draw us anew into our own relation to the Infant Birth, to the Star we seek to follow, to holiday traditions, even to the trees that we adorn at Christmas yet have a life of their own year round. GREETING THE SEASONS is a gift for us all. Peggy Rosenthal, author of THE POETS' JESUS