On Small Wings by Wendy Jean MacLean is a Don Gutteridge Poetry Award winning book. This book is cosmic and intimate, gritty and gentle: from the first moments of creation to the aching losses of dementia. These poems draw from nature’s relentless promises of birth, death and change. Ranging from complicated ancestry to the simple joy of a rainy morning, these poems invite the reader to ponder the mysteries and beauty of eternity, in each day. This book is a must read.

Award-winning poet Wendy Jean MacLean offers the reader a moment to pause, reflect and contemplate on the wonderous fragility of life. With birds as messengers, the winged ones provide a metaphor for the strange migrations of life and death and the echoes ‘round the corner’ (Introduction to the book).

The collection of seventy poems crafted during the COVID isolation, speaks to our vulnerability, our hope, and our visions for a new future, be it in life or death. It is not a book to be rushed or read through from cover to cover in one or two sittings. Rather each poem invites the reader to speak it out loud and allow the ear to absorb the nuances of rhythm, the juxtaposition of imagery, and the emotional intention in the stanzas.

Excerpt from Review by Deborah Dunleavy