response by Patricia J. Boyle

In this lyrical collection of poems, Patricia Boyle celebrates the natural world and explores her connection to it. She offers homage to birdsong, a marbled shell, a flowering dogwood, and the chatter of children, and I am transfixed by the “miniature, reflective worlds” and the intimacy of her quiet joy. “Be the beauty your seedling was destined to be,” she says, and “fuchsia veins, delicate ruffles of such loveliness/they make my chest ache.” After reading these beautiful poems, I am right there with her, “drunk on the elixir of limitless possibilities floating on the breeze.”

–Constance Hanstedt, Author of Don’t Leave Yet, How My Mother’s Alzheimer’s Opened My Heart and Treading Water.

This chapbook holds a treasure trove of images, the natural world revealed as majestic, even when observing the smallest aspects of that world – the veins in a flower, the twitch of a tail, rainfall. These are Patricia Boyle’s responses to being immersed in this natural world in this aptly named chapbook. Even when a human being intrudes upon this world, Boyle treats them gently, as if they were a fragile leaf in the hand. Reading these thoughtful, calm poems is a balm to the soul and reminds us of what is most enduring and most abundant, the natural beauty around us.

–Gillian Wegener, author of This Sweet Haphazard, Sixteen Rivers Press, 2017

Patricia Boyle’s response is a tapestry of nostalgic reflections, keen observations, and delightful flashes of insight. With masterful strokes of poetic imagery and expression, she takes us from “First Night,” where we meet a teenager drunk on the elixir of limitless possibility floating on the breeze, to “Evening Walk,” where we stood on the curve of the Earth and gazed at the western sky. Throughout, we are immersed in the poet’s profound wonder and appreciation for both the ordinary and extraordinary aspects of our world and the creatures who inhabit it.

–Peggy Schimmelman, Poet Laureate of Livermore, CA and author of Make Me Your Love Song