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Waving Back
The finely crafted poems in Waving Back, Gail Thomas's third collection, examine the ties that both fry and bind us to our families of origin and those of choice. Using language that is clear and startling, meditative and joyful, Thomas's poems reverberate with musicality and emotion. Whether writing about aging and loss or the sensual pleasure of plucking an artichoke, she brings the natural world into close focus. From a carnival in Provincetown to a ghostly buck fence in Laramie, these are poems of quiet power that allow the reader to feel "alive with whir and dart" as well as to experience a "banquet of grief." In our age of distraction, Thomas invites us to listen more closely to the voices of the living and the dead.
87 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2015
2 people want to read
About the author
Gail Thomas
7 books3 followersPoet and teacher Gail Thomas has published six books: Trail of Roots (2022), Leaving Paradise (2022),Odd Mercy (2016), Waving Back (2015), No Simple Wilderness: An Elegy for Swift River Valley (2001) and Finding the Bear (1997).
Trail of Roots won the A.V. Christie Series of Seven Kitchens Press, Odd Mercy was chosen by Ellen Bass for the Charlotte Mew Prize of Headmistress Press, and its “Little Mommy Sonnets” won Honorable Mention for the Tom Howard/ Margaret Reid Prize for Traditional Verse. Also, Waving Back was named a Must Read for 2016 by the Massachusetts Center for the Book and Honorable Mention in the New England Book Festival.
Thomas’s work has appeared in many journals and anthologies including The Beloit Poetry Journal, Calyx, The North American Review, Hanging Loose, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. Individual poems have won the Naugatuck Review’s Narrative Poetry Prize, the Edward Hearst Prize, and the Pat Schneider Poetry Prize. Several poems have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, and she was awarded residencies at The McDowell Colony and Ucross.
Her book, No Simple Wilderness, about the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930’s has been taught in college courses. As one of the original teaching artists for the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Elder Arts Initiative, Thomas led workshops and collaborated with dancers, musicians and storytellers in schools, nursing homes, hospitals and libraries across the state.
Thomas teaches poetry with Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshops, speaks at conferences and poetry festivals, and reads her work widely in community and academic settings.
Trail of Roots won the A.V. Christie Series of Seven Kitchens Press, Odd Mercy was chosen by Ellen Bass for the Charlotte Mew Prize of Headmistress Press, and its “Little Mommy Sonnets” won Honorable Mention for the Tom Howard/ Margaret Reid Prize for Traditional Verse. Also, Waving Back was named a Must Read for 2016 by the Massachusetts Center for the Book and Honorable Mention in the New England Book Festival.
Thomas’s work has appeared in many journals and anthologies including The Beloit Poetry Journal, Calyx, The North American Review, Hanging Loose, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. Individual poems have won the Naugatuck Review’s Narrative Poetry Prize, the Edward Hearst Prize, and the Pat Schneider Poetry Prize. Several poems have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, and she was awarded residencies at The McDowell Colony and Ucross.
Her book, No Simple Wilderness, about the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930’s has been taught in college courses. As one of the original teaching artists for the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Elder Arts Initiative, Thomas led workshops and collaborated with dancers, musicians and storytellers in schools, nursing homes, hospitals and libraries across the state.
Thomas teaches poetry with Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshops, speaks at conferences and poetry festivals, and reads her work widely in community and academic settings.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 23, 2015
A beautiful and accessible book of poems by an accomplished poet. Each poem is a world that invites us to enter, to remember our own lives and to celebrate all that life and death bring. My favorite poem begins with "What if we stop tweeting and texting and started listening to the dead. Put your ear next to the screen where night air blows in, under the chair where dust gathers, inside a milkweek pod before it burst." Then again, I was pulled right into summer sweetness with "Instead of going home I follow a craving for strawberries, climb the steep dirt road to search for a farm the old timers talk about..." Part memoir, part visioning, this book is both about waving back and reaching forward.
May 22, 2015
In these finely crafted and accessible poems Gail Thomas waves back at existence, creating stories full of the details of what it means to be human. With intelligence and humanity she invites the reader to share in the joy, grief, fun, and more often some complicated mix of emotions, brought on by a closely examined moment. Thomas brings all of life and death to the page. She is a poet who understands that Butter, Ambition, and The Delivery Room After Chemo all deserve our prayers and our poems.
May 30, 2015
Gail Thomas's poetry gives wonderful insights into the challenges and joys of living. Her poems on family relationships, nature and everyday experiences gives the reader pause to closely examine with fresh eyes and appreciation life's journey. Here's to "Waving Back" at you, Gail for making us pause.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews