Come the Sweet by and by

Come the Sweet By and By is the first recipient of the Juniper Prize, an award granted yearly by the University of Massachusetts Press for an outstanding poetry manuscript.

The unifying theme of these poems, writes Ms. Lerman, is getting by–no matter how strange, difficult, absurd or grievous are the circumstances you find yourself in, there must be a way to survive them.

Many of these poems are love poems, written at the point where love stopped being easy and somehow became a question of faith, a matter of believing that despite what happens, in the end, the love that’s left will be enough to get you through your last day.