A Wild Surmise: New & Selected Poems & Recordings
 “What a delight it is to have gathered here these poems from previous collections—as well as new poems—from a poet I have admired for years. Eloise Klein Healy’s straightforward and wry wit underscores her wisdom and the peacefulness that comes from a deeply humane emotional and intellectual knowledge.AWildSurmisetouches on so many things with such clarity and precision it’s like having a handbook to guide us through the world.”—Natasha Trethewey “Why do I love Eloise’s poetry? Because it is so rooted in her love of LA, and other sacred places only Eloise would know. She celebrates so lovingly the sensual bodies of neighborhood, cars, beach, freeway, lover, creature—she places us all the way into the life cycles of reality. This collection is witty, sensual, full of sagacity and surprise, exquisitely beautiful. Fine poetry to be read again and again.”—Judy Grahn “I first read Eloise Klein Healy’s wonderful and deceptively simple poem ‘What Is Being Forgotten’ sometime in the seventies, and I am happy to say that I never forgot. That unassuming lyric built on itself over the years—as did its speaker, living and forging this beguiling collection of poems as lyrics that still work with simple but which turn simplicity around in the hand, showing us the intimacy of all its sides, wild included. ‘I didn’t need saving,/just revising,’ says the speaker in one poem. This is sacred, discovered ground, and I am happy to share in the hold of what is being remembered.”      —Alberto Ríos “A Wild Surmiseis full of appreciation for the physical—from the freeways of LA and ball bearings pouring into a pan to the sun smell of her dog’s fur. From chili-flakes in a shaker to Greek scrolls buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. And through these vivid moments we are given glimpses into the life of a lesbian poet and the culture in which she wrote beginning in the 70s and continuing to the present. Reading Eloise Klein Healy’sNew & Selected Poemsis like sitting down with a dear friend with a strong cup of tea or a glass of wine and being given the gift of a deep and generous sharing.”—Ellen Bass“A Wild Surmiseshows Healy to be a disciplined, polished poet with a vision that's unfailingly open and generous. As Healy cares for the people close to her, or mourns them, her emotions take residence in the city's natural and built environments, landscapes that feel at once exotic and familiar, cruel and welcoming.”—The Los Angeles Times“How to let a reader know the way Healy can, in one volume, capture the verve and essence of Los Angeles, the history and cultural legacy of Sappho, and the vital dichotomy of love and mortality, while still leaving room to write about her dogs? Like this, I suppose: read this book. It’s worth it.”—Lambda Literary Review