Each of Hydrangea's imagistic poems invites us to contemplate our natures. This is a book that teaches us stillness through the soft eyes of a praying mantis and offers us the comfort of winter sparrows, unafraid. Monaghan's fine lyrical attention listens as "the grass sings its deep song." These vibrant, gentle, and finely hewn verses take us inside the speaker's heart to discover truths beyond what is "heavy, broken" and in disrepair to a state of grace where " no one can tell (us) that summer is ending. -- Eileen Cleary, author of Child Ward of the Commonwealth