River

Author: Maryann Hurtt

Publisher: Aldrich Press, Kelsay Books (2016)

"Bless Maryann Hurtt for chronicling the way we leave this world with humor and compassion, so that 'even death / is grace.' In this moving collection of poems, former hospice nurse Hurtt combines a clear-eyed attention to life's end with details from the natural world— 'tiny end-of-season roses hold teaspoons of snow'—allowing us to view death not with fear but with reverence. These fine, elegiac poems suggest death is as natural as the seasons, showing us how 'in the end/ we become / what we love.'"

–Holly J. Hughes

"So wise, so gentle. So beautiful and glad. If you are astonished at life or confused by death, you will love the River poems. I will give River to my closest friends—a shining gift."

–Kathleen Dean Moore