The Miracles

With lyricism and grace, Amy Lemmon gives us a worldview to live by. The all-too-familiar "wear of sorrow's rub" is presented alongside the world's miracles, including the author's two children. Through the disintegration of her marriage and the tragic death of her children's father, she tells us, "We can believe something is always growing." With a mix of wonder and trepidation, Lemmon chronicles the blossoming of a son and daughter, each exceptional in their own way, into ever more complex beings under her care. She names other miracles as well: "This light, /wan blue sky and unforgiving sun, /the sound of crushing asphalt beneath/strong metal, the grinding of gears." The broken world is made whole by the stately yet playful lines of these masterful poems, whether wrought in received forms like sonnet, sestina, and villanelle, invented/indented forms, riffs on famous forbears, or musically crafted free verse. Fearlessly bridging the gap between tradition and artistic innovation, the author moves us forward with her into the unknown, to entertain new relationships with herself, her children, and the world.

About the Author :
Amy Lemmon is the author of two previous poetry collections: Fine Motor (Sow's Ear Poetry Review Press, 2008) and Saint Nobody (Red Hen Press, 2009) and co-author, with Denise Duhamel, of the chapbooks ABBA: The Poems (Coconut Books, 2010) and ENJOY HOT OR ICED: POEMS IN CONVERSATION AND A CONVERSATION (Slapering Hol Press, 2011). Her writing has appeared in The Best American Poetry, Rolling Stone, Barrow Street, Prairie Schooner, Verse, Court Green, The Journal, Marginalia, and many other magazines and anthologies. She is Professor and Chairperson of English and Communication Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology-SUNY and lives in New York City.

Review :
Like miracles themselves, these poems will surprise you at every turn, leaving you marveling at their verve and bravery. They create an incredible story of grieving for what is lost and the gratitude for what remains. Amy Lemmon truly brings us back to the heart of human experience, reminding us that, no matter how grave the trauma, we'll surprise ourselves and survive. Erica Dawson, author of When Rap Spoke Straight to God Sylvia Plath famously ended her poem, "Kindness" with "The blood jet is poetry, / There is no stopping it./ You hand me two children, two roses." With these words Plath had the prescient fortitude to frame Amy Lemmon's new collection, The Miracles. In a word, the book is brilliant. Like a brilliantly cast diamond or strong and gleaming star, it shines through space and time to show us the holy wonders present in everyday life. Its language is rigorous and ringing, the kind of language that only comes after emotions have freed themselves from what they want to say and only can say what they must. This book of poems is the blood jet. It pulses wild and free. It's a revelation. Dorothea Lasky, author of Milk The Miracles is a knockout--Amy Lemmon's frankest, most affecting poems to date. Her intimate recollections of a husband who has died and her rueful, unflinching ruminations on motherhood remind us that life's sorrows often come not singly but in battalions. Yet sounding above Lemmon's elegiac music is an astonishing descant of resolve and hope. Finally, love is the miracle for which her poems give thanks and for which we, as her readers, may be deeply grateful as well. David Yezzi, author of Black Sea