Nothing but the Blood

LAURA APOL is Associate Professor of Education at Michigan State University. She is the author of several collections of poems including Falling into Grace; Crossing the Ladder of Sun; Requiem, Rwanda; Celestial Bodies; and With a Gift for Burning.

“As a whole, Nothing but the Blood might be called a ‘coming of (middle) age’ book—or perhaps a sort of recovery narrative. Will the second half of this woman’s life be different from the first? Will she be saved from ‘the splintered past’ and the ‘rage’ of the present? We want to think she will, and the beautiful poems at the book’s close are reassuring.”—JOYCE SUTPHEN, Minnesota State Poet Laureate

• Contents On Divine Highway Horoscope Mid-Life Writing the Body The Piano Briars Weeding the Garden with John Calvin Sabbath And then, the Fall Genealogy Colonial History Mother, Smoking Suppose Birthright Midwinter, My Mother Easter Sunday On My Fiftieth Birthday, I Return Motherline Of the Body On Dreams February 29th Sending My Son to College Errant Afterbirth A Photo The Fire Second Sight November Rains Surrender Daughter Leaving Home In the Vineyards of Teramo Blood Moon Caught Takotsubo First Peach after the Truth Burning the Old Year Seven Months On Scattering Ashes at Land’s End Pardon To the Lighthouse The Gift of Yes Roots Five Prayers to Be Said upon Departure Light, Water, Bones On Divine Highway II Notes Acknowledgments