The Light Between: (Made in Michigan Writers)

Poems of stylistic and emotional range that journey widely through love's losses and connections. In The Light Between, award-winning poet Terry Blackhawk probes beyond and through the painful dissolution of a long marriage to examine the complexities of love with bravery and delicacy. Mythical themes, elements of the natural world, and masculine/feminine polarities resonate throughout Blackhawk's poems as she explores loss, the nature of relationships, and the integrity of the individual soul. Ultimately, The Light Between celebrates our connectedness to one another, to the planet, and to the natural world. Section one opens as Blackhawk visits a lonely mythical kingdom and introduces images of an empty bed and the betrayed wife Medea, whose identification with nature signals one of the book's main motifs. Section two presents deeply personal poems that flutter through time and lingering memories, while in section three, the gaze of the poet turns upward and outward to nature. Section four returns to the social world--to the street, traffic, visual art, and teaching--which poses the possibility of love once more. Section five celebrates the union of man and woman with some tender (and sometimes comical) love poems. Throughout, Blackhawk addresses heavy issues such as divorce and solitude, but also shows a playful side with lighthearted poems. She describes an imaginary meeting with poet laureate Billy Collins in one poem, and in another writes about finding a dried-up eggplant while sweeping the kitchen. Whether writing about the intricacies of loss or our connection to nature and one another, she manages--like the speaker with the decayed fruit in "The Eggplant"--to "poke around and find the beauty of it." Students and teachers of writing and fans of poetry will enjoy this beautifully crafted collection.

About the Author :
Terry Blackhawk is the author of five previous poetry collections, including Escape Artist, winner of the 2002 John Ciardi Prize. She has received the Foley Poetry Prize, the Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, the Michigan Governor's Award for Arts Education, and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. She is founding director of Detroit's acclaimed InsideOut Literary Arts Project and lives and writes not far from the river in Detroit, Michigan.

Review :
[This book is] a tonic, a triumph of the individual spirit. -- "Hour Detroit, May 2012" With a prolific poetry catalog behind her, Terry Blackhawk has made quite a name for herself in contemporary poetry. The Light Between is her latest volume of work that explores her thoughts on the nature of the world and how we all come to understand it. With much to ponder with its own beautiful verse, The Light Between is a choice and very much recommended pick. --James A. Cox "The Midwest Book Review"