Two Minutes of Light
Nancy Pearson's poems are rife with the urgencies of constructing a self. It is a harrowing, hard-fought project. As one poem asks,By what small margins do we survive?This is a book fiercely in love with the world, a book that unflinchingly examines what can keep someone from inhabiting that world, whole.Two Minutes of Lightis a startling, luminous, and moving first collection. --Kim AddonizioThese poems remind me of collecting stones while walking, each one leading the way to a house in the forest. I want to say they spell redemption, but the forest has its own kind of talking and what's extraordinary about this extraordinary book is how that world -- tree, insect, rain, fish, flower, bird -- has its saying and song too. I've never seen the world of human trauma and recovery set in what we call the natural world, mediated by the human gaze, yes, and so blessedly indifferent to us. I read this book over and over again. --Marie HoweThese poems remind me of collecting stones while walking, each one leading the way to a house in the forest. I want to say they spell redemption, but the forest has its own kind of talking and what's extraordinary about this extraordinary book is how that world -- tree, insect, rain, fish, flower, bird -- has its saying and song too. I've never seen the world of human trauma and recovery set in what we call the natural world, mediated by the human gaze, yes, and so blessedly indifferent to us. I read this book over and over again. --Marie Howe