Swallowing Stones

These are the poems of a woman who must live with loss and change: her name Lily turns to Lisa, and the pronouns we and us will become I. Reverberations of the heart in love and loss are multiple, and from that mix comes beauty, "hatred . . .the awkward side of love." From the start, we, the readers, are led to understand that this mix holds uplift, joy. As we read on, we feel the comfort of sisterhood; St. John writes of Mary, "You are the eternal lap" in "On Seeing the Pieta." Stones reappear in "Ocean," as the waves, "our mother," turn stones to dust. We hear the human voice extend itself: "If we could translate howling, would it be song?" Always the mix. St. John knows the power of the poetic line and uses it to make us present to her feelings. In subject, in craft, these poems are a gift. -Myra Shapiro, author of When the World Walks Toward You

Lisa St. John's poems cook up "perception recipes"-one of the apt and memorable phrases packing this liberatory collection. With disarming charm, a range of poetic approaches both formal and free, and a gloriously fierce feminist rage towards freedom, this wide-ranging poet shares her journey through living, bereavement, and the triumph of beauty towards "the deep end of instinct."

-Annie Finch, author of Spells: New and Selected Poems