Poems Before Easter

by Barbara Glenn, N. Scott Momaday (Foreword), Kenneth Fields (Introduction)

The intense poems of yearning in this poignant collection deal with many themes, but central to them all are concerns with the mysteries of absence and intimacy, proximity and distance.In “Penelope, Afterwards,” presence is absence in Penelope’s startling understanding of her weaving after the return of frail web, a vow—And yet it bides my waking here to findMy love of a stranger, sleeping by my side.The plaintive sonnet “Nocturne” muses ways our lives might take flare upwardAs briefly as the fireflies’ light, as brightAs bound to earth as they, our course and patternEvanescent, beyond what we can see.While the title Poems Before Easter may uplift and inspire, the period before Easter is treated as a time of suffering and loss leading to rebirth. These poems face that darkness while also preparing for renewal in the world.

Kindle Edition

First published April 16, 2011