green leaves, dead trees

The poems in Sydney Beck’s green leaves, dead trees are an act of both reclamation and redemption. One of the most human things a human can do is to acknowledge their own particular brokenness out loud. But then what do we do with it? If we plant that in the ground, what new green thing will grow there? Keeping anything / Alive / Is exhausting, the poet confesses. But when we become weary of the world, it’s poetry we turn to for healing and restoration. There is real pain and heartbreak in this collection. Loneliness and betrayal. But there is also hope and empowerment pushing up stubbornly through the dark soil toward warm sunlight. Even when the tree looks all but dead, Beck’s straightforward and compelling poems promise resurrection.