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Exculpatory Lilies: Poems
2023 Griffin Poetry Prize Finalist
A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book
2022 Walcott Prize Shortlist
From the award-winning poet known for her bracing honesty and sharp yet compassionate gaze, here is a new collection of poems that explore life, marriage, addiction, death, and heart-wrenching grief.
If grief is the willingness to be claimed by a story bigger than ourselves, Susan Musgrave writes, “in that / tender wavering, I let grief in.”
"Writing about grief or tragedy is tricky. Hard to meet it at a heart-level without being effusive; hard to meet it at a brain-level without being cold. Hard not to make it about ourselves. Hard to meet it at a visceral level because it can take us out at the knees," wrote author Carrie Mac, responding to the death of Musgrave’s partner, Stephen Reid, in 2018. Following this traumatic loss, in September 2021 their daughter, Sophie, died of an accidental overdose after a twenty-year struggle with addiction.
But to say this is a collection solely about grief would be to miss the whole nature of Musgrave’s voice and sensibility. Wit is one counterpoint; the natural world is another. The poems share a landscape whose creatures, minutely observed, wild and tame—the winged ones most of all—dance attendance on the helplessness of our brief and mystifying human lives. Throughout Exculpatory Lilies , Musgrave’s alertness to even the most desolate places makes her personal sorrows astonishingly potent; and her scrutiny of language, and emotions, makes shot silk out of sackcloth and ashes.
A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book
2022 Walcott Prize Shortlist
From the award-winning poet known for her bracing honesty and sharp yet compassionate gaze, here is a new collection of poems that explore life, marriage, addiction, death, and heart-wrenching grief.
If grief is the willingness to be claimed by a story bigger than ourselves, Susan Musgrave writes, “in that / tender wavering, I let grief in.”
"Writing about grief or tragedy is tricky. Hard to meet it at a heart-level without being effusive; hard to meet it at a brain-level without being cold. Hard not to make it about ourselves. Hard to meet it at a visceral level because it can take us out at the knees," wrote author Carrie Mac, responding to the death of Musgrave’s partner, Stephen Reid, in 2018. Following this traumatic loss, in September 2021 their daughter, Sophie, died of an accidental overdose after a twenty-year struggle with addiction.
But to say this is a collection solely about grief would be to miss the whole nature of Musgrave’s voice and sensibility. Wit is one counterpoint; the natural world is another. The poems share a landscape whose creatures, minutely observed, wild and tame—the winged ones most of all—dance attendance on the helplessness of our brief and mystifying human lives. Throughout Exculpatory Lilies , Musgrave’s alertness to even the most desolate places makes her personal sorrows astonishingly potent; and her scrutiny of language, and emotions, makes shot silk out of sackcloth and ashes.
128 pages, Paperback
Published September 6, 2022
About the author
Susan Musgrave
80 books45 followersSusan Musgrave is a Canadian poet and children's writer. She was born in Santa Cruz, California to Canadian parents, and currently lives in British Columbia, dividing her time between Sidney and Haida Gwaii.
Musgrave was married to Stephen Reid, a writer, convicted bank robber and former member of the infamous band of thieves known as the Stopwatch Gang. Their relationship was chronicled in 1999 in the CBC series Life and Times.
She currently teaches creative writing in the University of British Columbia's Optional Residency Master of Fine Arts Program.
Recognizing a life in writing, the Writers' Trust presented Susan Musgrave with the 2014 Matt Cohen Award for her lifetime of work.
Musgrave was married to Stephen Reid, a writer, convicted bank robber and former member of the infamous band of thieves known as the Stopwatch Gang. Their relationship was chronicled in 1999 in the CBC series Life and Times.
She currently teaches creative writing in the University of British Columbia's Optional Residency Master of Fine Arts Program.
Recognizing a life in writing, the Writers' Trust presented Susan Musgrave with the 2014 Matt Cohen Award for her lifetime of work.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 26, 2022
I'm speechless. Real and vulnerable poems on life, death, grief and sorrow.
January 28, 2023
I'll assume a big chunk of this collection pertains to a personal experience this Canadian poet had with her daughter's obliterating heroin addiction and its aftermath. Put simply, this prose is too biting, too raw to be a figment of someone's imagination. There were many instances I had to stop myself to take a breath for a few minutes. Remaining poems deal with failed relationships, and nasty ghosts from the pasts. Heart-breaking prose that rattles the heart and moves the reader beyond tears. Pure brilliance!
November 27, 2023
This is a stunning collection of poetry. Susan Musgrave wrote many of these poems while grieving the deaths of her husband and daughter. Stephen Reid ("gentleman bank robber turned writer") died unexpectedly of a lung infection, and their cherished daughter, Sophie, perished in the opioid crisis.
This book will live forever on my favourites shelf, right next to Jackrabbit Parole.
This book will live forever on my favourites shelf, right next to Jackrabbit Parole.
June 29, 2023
this weeks forecast, the probability of grief
from the poem The Weather
p19
Susan Musgrave knows grief. It's a damn good thing that she knows many other things, including the therapeutic wisdom of crafting poems from it.
Love what gets in the way...
Love every obstacle p11
Exculpatory. Not a word that without practice trips easily off the tongue. Awkward, bulky. I had to look it up. I couldn't recall ever hearing it before; to me, it had vaguely foreboding religous undertones. Five syllables. A harsh sensuousness in the mouth.
The meaning of the word expands on reading these strong poems. Sometimes an image or a cluster of resonant phrases or even one of the shorter poems will crack the reader open like a blow or a walnut.
...when the fighting starts
don't forget to sing
from the poem The Lesson
p77
from the poem The Weather
p19
Susan Musgrave knows grief. It's a damn good thing that she knows many other things, including the therapeutic wisdom of crafting poems from it.
Love what gets in the way...
Love every obstacle p11
Exculpatory. Not a word that without practice trips easily off the tongue. Awkward, bulky. I had to look it up. I couldn't recall ever hearing it before; to me, it had vaguely foreboding religous undertones. Five syllables. A harsh sensuousness in the mouth.
The meaning of the word expands on reading these strong poems. Sometimes an image or a cluster of resonant phrases or even one of the shorter poems will crack the reader open like a blow or a walnut.
...when the fighting starts
don't forget to sing
from the poem The Lesson
p77
August 27, 2023
I have buried two husbands from cancer and a son due to an overdose. I have never experienced grief expressed so eloquently. I needed these poems to give voice to the words I do not have. Thank you, Susan Musgrave.
February 6, 2023
Fabulous book. Highly, highly recommended. So many layers. So much to dig through. Just read it.
February 8, 2025
Incandescent writing from Canadian writer and poet Susan Musgrave.
Susan Musgrave’s 2022 book of poems Exculpatory Lilies was written following the deaths of her husband and her daughter. It’s an extremely powerful, potent book of poetry that is broken into five parts.
• The Air of Elsewhere
• The Goodness of This World
• Giving The Wound Air
• Still They Call It Marriage
• What Is Living
An unflinching and vulnerable, unforgettable perspective on themes of grief, love and sorrow weave through this exquisite work.
Having discovered and adored Musgrave as a teenager and returning to her work now in my midlife, only serves to solidify the quality of her writing and her position as one of Canada’s national literary treasures.
Susan Musgrave, like Mary Oliver, Jane Hirshfield and Margaret Atwood, is an autobuy author and I can’t get enough of her incredible work.
Susan Musgrave’s 2022 book of poems Exculpatory Lilies was written following the deaths of her husband and her daughter. It’s an extremely powerful, potent book of poetry that is broken into five parts.
• The Air of Elsewhere
• The Goodness of This World
• Giving The Wound Air
• Still They Call It Marriage
• What Is Living
An unflinching and vulnerable, unforgettable perspective on themes of grief, love and sorrow weave through this exquisite work.
Having discovered and adored Musgrave as a teenager and returning to her work now in my midlife, only serves to solidify the quality of her writing and her position as one of Canada’s national literary treasures.
Susan Musgrave, like Mary Oliver, Jane Hirshfield and Margaret Atwood, is an autobuy author and I can’t get enough of her incredible work.
December 12, 2023
This book packed a serious punch! I read Susan Musgrave a lot in my early postpartum years and reading her work again now I can understand why that early mother-self was so drawn to her writing. These are poems for the broken, the gutted, the wind swept, the ravaged. They are poems for the grieving, for those who stumble onward bearing witness to the brutality of this life and also the heart wrenching beauty of it. I was actually moved to tears more than once reading these poems. I expect to return to Susan Musgrave's work again and again.
April 16, 2024
Her poems are real, observant, imaginative, tender, and kind. I look forward to meeting her potentially at her writing retreat at Hollyhock on Cortes Island. She inspires me to appreciate and to write.
April 12, 2023
My first Musgrave. I am now reading more. See more of my thoughts on this book here: https://youtu.be/L9EMVAWtINw
March 17, 2025
Beautiful and/or brutal. And. It's and.
July 15, 2026
This is the only collection of poetry that I have read from beginning to end in one day! A memorable book!
July 16, 2026
Had to read this in pieces. Very intense and well done.
November 2, 2023
Gorgeous, heartbreaking poems, mostly but not entirely about grief.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews