Ways I’ve Known Water by Lisa Breger

I get chills and have to exhale for a moment after reading one of Lisa Breger’s stunning poems. Rarely does one encounter a collection so shot through with gratitude, alongside the simple truth of life with cancer, this speaker saying of it all: “what a miracle.” The poems here are so chock-full of actual people, places, and things, they ring with authenticity and a sensual love for the world just as it is: “Who wouldn’t spend time here?” In Ways I’ve Known Water, Breger urges us to keep our eyes and heart wide-open to the aliveness of each new moment, searching for joyful reprieves when, released from pain and grief, we can now “dance with our discharge papers/fall over backwards and make angels in the snow.”

–James Crews, author of Turning Toward Grief: Reflections on Life, Loss & Appreciation

Lisa Breger‘s poetry invites us into the heart of mystery— one where there is glory in the familiar, miracles in the ordinary, and a shining within the dark earth. These are poems that sit with us like an old friend, wrap their arms around our shoulders, that are meant to be shared like “bread/broken and gifted.” You will want to linger with these words, listen carefully to this wise, new poetic voice. You will come away loving your life more than you ever thought you could.

–Judith Valente is the author of the poetry collections, How to Be a Contemplative; Discovering Moons; and Inventing An Alphabet and co-editor of Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul.