Light of Wings

Sarah Kotchian is also the author of Camino, winner of the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award and the Seven Sisters Book Award.

In this compassionate and attentive work, there is radiance in the face of loss, music in the ephemeral. Breath is cherished here: the breath of the poetic line, the greater breadth of living things across space and time. Transcendentalist in temperament, modest yet eloquent, Kotchian's lucid and image-laden poems urge us―as stewards of an ever-changing and disappearing world―to 'listen for the new green song.'"—Shara Lessley, author of The Explosive Expert's Wife "Kotchian's poems evoke the wonders of creatures all around us, if we are patient and quiet enough to encounter them. There is grief here too, woven throughout, as Kotchian attends to dying beloveds (parents, brother, friend) and to ecological loss. In a steady cadence, these poems ask us to bear our intimate and collective losses on this teetering, beautiful, and still wildly alive planet."—Anne Haven McDonnell, author of Breath on a Coal "Sarah Kotchian documents the wonders around us that are so easy to miss--from grass to hummingbirds to the DNA of salmon in the trees, from yucca seeds to milkweed to the color of roses in an old woman's hair. She shows us what's here, 'annunciations everywhere you look,' our glory beads shining around us."—Maura Stanton, author of Immortal Sofa

• I. HoldfastWrackStopping by EgretOur LadyElizabeth Makes the BedsPersephoneSnow PeasBreathWhen I PrayWhat IfPermeableII. The Shape of ShadowArroyoThe Things That Woke MeRiver BendWinter TidesNight PilgrimBreachStill LifeI Sent Leaves to My MotherTo Paint the Autumn Landscape of the PoemEphemeralsAngle of ReposeLeavingCanvasThe Shape of ShadowAshMemento MoriIII. Light of WingsAfter the RainDebutSuccessionThe Company That Keeps MeQuid Pro CrowBoundary WatersLight of WingsBloomMilkweedAnnunciationIV. Prayer of ReachingDoorsWoman at the WellAccompanistOn the White Strand of the MonksTrain to GlasgowA Wee Dram in ObanWalking to DoverMoving FeastGlory BeadsMurmurationWatch for WaterOn Caravaggio's Supper at EmmausAcknowledgments