In Stones for Words, Sara Robinson takes the reader through five distinct levels of an evolutionary journey of her writing and philosophy of life. Like the stratification of the earth's mantle, her personal development is in layers of hard and soft rock, which she must mine for definition and clarity. She is not afraid or reluctant to involve the reader in the intimacy of her thoughts and self-doubts. Using simple, but powerful imagery, mixed with abundant use of metaphor and simile, she presents her observations and attempts at logical conclusions. In some poems there is a sense of inner...

Sara Robinson's father, Hobby Robinson, was one of the most important photographers of the 20th century to be so little well-known, at least outside the Shenandoah Valley of central Virginia. He chronicled over three generations of Elkton townsfolk, compiling and self-publishing nine books. Using his vast collection of photographs, his own and those he obtained, he gave us a people and a place. SOMETIMES THE LITTLE TOWN is Sara's gift of ekphrastic poetry inspired by the portraits in her father's collection. And like her father's work as a photographer, Sara's poetry is a tribute to little...