A Minefield of Etceteras

In this carefully crafted collection, Peggy Heinrich delivers poems that range from childhood recollections and family situations to poignant elegies in which she wrestles with the pain of loss and the "mind buzz of persistent thought." Whether she speaks in her own voice about her own experience, or adopts the voice of Eve in Eden, or of Penelope in Ithaca, her poems are always intensely personal, exploring a subtle range of mood and feeling. "I connect myself to ordinary things," she writes in one of her poems. Nevertheless, her work reveals a sensitivity beyond the ordinary, and an uncommon eye for image and metaphor. There is, too, in the broad sweep of her poems, a quiet humor-at times a delightful whimsicality-that celebrates the joys of life while contemplating themes of separation, loss, and the rigors of time. Nicholas Rinaldi, author of Between Two Rivers Intensely seen, musical and wise, these poems visit ghosts and dreams "that vibrate with monkeys and flowers" all the while engaging easily with worlds of osprey nests and shrinking tides, family lessons and loss. Heinrich writes with admirable clarity and grace. Colette Inez, author of Spinoza Doesn't Come Here Anymore