Chalkmarks on Stone

In these rigorously composed, sensually grounded, lyrical poems, the world is distilled with a compelling logic—from the poet’s home in New Mexico to a Jewish cemetery in China. A shifting vowel signals the end of a marriage; with its proboscis, a butterfly taps out “the secret names of God.” Like the matryoshka doll of one poem, Moldaw’s poetry reveals selves within selves with a formal intricacy disarming in its ease. “Another Part of the Field,” a long, meditative fugue of six-line poems, uses the I Ching to explore what lies beneath the surface of each day. Here is masterfully evocative poetry of grace, beauty, and surprise.

“Carol Moldaw’s poetry is a form of fixed attention, generous-minded and passionately, physically immediate.”—Diane Middlebrook