Rival Gardens

Connie Wanek is the author of three books of poetry-Bonfire, Hartley Field, and On Speaking Terms-and the coeditor of the award-winning anthology To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-territorial Days to the Present. She has been a Witter Bynner Fellow of the Library of Congress and was named George Morrison Artist of the Year, an honor given to a northern Minnesotan for contributions to the arts over many years. She has lived for decades in Duluth, Minnesota.

"Beautiful in every respect."-Tim Nolan, MN Artists "An instant favorite of mine."-Danny Heitman, Christian Science Monitor "Equal parts marvel and pang, Rival Gardens documents the grit, heart, and wisdom of an ecopoetic sage."-Plume Poetry "Wanek’s imagery is consistently outstanding."-Edward A. Dougherty, Rain Taxi "Readers who are already fans of Wanek will be overjoyed with Rival Gardens. For those who are new to Wanek, this is the perfect collection for wading into the full scope of her amazing poetry."-Andrew Nye, Corresponder “Connie Wanek’s beautiful poems travel effortlessly among our various realms-the human, the natural, and the cosmic, inhabited by gods who may have some resemblance to ourselves. The light is wonderfully clear in these accounts, as is the darkness, each one illuminating the other.”-Charles Baxter, author of There’s Something I Want You to Do “Connie Wanek is one of the best poets of our time, and this new book, Rival Gardens, certainly demonstrates that. These selections . . . are works of wit and subtlety, of clarity, great generosity, and precise vision that make this book a treasure to read again and again.”-Louis Jenkins, author of Before You Know It and Tin Flag “In Wanek’s earth-proud, glorious work, all elements are in communication: a chimney offers ‘a plume of smoke hand-feeding the wind,’ a radish ‘bites you back,’ and a moose’s ‘grave eyes’ are ‘reminiscent somehow of Abe Lincoln.’ The first time I found her poems I phoned them to friends before making it past the library stairs. Rival Gardens offers a thrilling gift to anyone who loves metaphors, human beings, compassion, and the revelation of sly observation-I’m sending out a cosmic call: these lyric narratives bring you life through a consciousness you wish you had lived.”-Jessica Greenbaum, editor of upstreet and author of The Two Yvonnes

• Acknowledgments    Introduction by Ted Kooser    Selections from BonfireApril    Red Fox    Abstract    Wild Apples    The Girl and the Horses    Daylilies    The Wandering Sky    Broom    Skim Milk    Radish    Radiator    Missed Bus    Duluth, Minnesota    Blue Moon    The Gelding    Dragonfly    Rain    Toward Dusk    Peonies    Amaryllis    Christmas Tree    January    Bonfire    Ski Tracks    Selections from Hartley FieldThe Coin behind Your Ear    The Ventriloquist    Butter    Peaches    Red Rover    Jump Rope    Horses in Spring    Summer Night    Lemon    Long Nights    Postcard: Busy Clarence Town Harbor on a Mail Boat Day    Honesty    Black and White Photograph    Memorial Day at the Lake    The Midwife    The Exchange    Children near the Water    A Field of Barley    Checkers    So like Her Father    The Hammer    Tag    Late September    New Snow    Grown Children    Heart Surgery    All Saints’ Day    Christmas Fable    After Us    Hartley Field    Selections from On Speaking TermsFirst Snow    Monopoly    Nothing    Tracks in the Snow    The Accordion    Scrabble    Directions    Lipstick    Everything Free    Fishing on Isabella Lake    Garlic    Rags    Lady    Confessional Poem    Walking Distance    The Splits    Buttercups    Closest to the Sky    Comb    Umbrella    Picture Yourself    The Death of My Father    A Sighting    Green Tent    Pumpkin    A Random Gust from the North    Musical Chairs    A Parting    Pecans    Old Snow    Pickles    Coloring Book    Blue Ink    Six Months after My Father’s Death    Honey    Leftovers    Ice Out    New PoemsPart OneGarter Snake    Pollen    Rival Gardens    The Summerhouse    Polygamy    The Neighbor’s Pond    An Ordinary Crisis    Mysterious Neighbors    Catbird    Root Words    Rain Collection    Blue Flags    “Golden Glow”    Blackbirds at Dusk    First House    Last Star    Part TwoUsed Book    Ghost Town    When I Was a Boy    Audience    John Q. Public    A Collection of Near Misses    Adaptation    Plein Air    The Death of the Battery    Girdle    Parts per Million    Mrs. God    Genesis, Cont.    Day of Rest    Business    First Love    Part ThreeArtificial Tears    I Heard You Come In    Pavement Ends    The Shoes of the Dead    A Last Time for Everything    Practice    Phoebe    They Live with Us    Recalled to Life    Walleye    Wild Asters    Brave Rabbits    Brave Rabbits, a Second Look    A Marsh at Twilight    The Second Half of the Night    Cabbage Moth    Garden Gloves    Also by This Gardener