In the Tall Grasses by Michael J. Olson

Michael Olson’s poetry is the work of a latter-day Merlin—ordinary words are transformed through his deft alchemy. No book flap or blurb could afford enough space do justice to this impressive collection. Olson’s poems are often complex, occasionally mystifying, yet genuine and ultimately accessible. We are constantly riveted by his revelations and invited to consider questions and phenomena which rarely occur to us. We inhabit the mind of a hawk looking for lunch hiding in the tall grasses. In the natural world, all creatures are unknowingly caught up in a pitched battle for survival, yet they live on the knife-edge of mortality so peacefully. Why can’t we humans graciously accept our own place in the sweet and fragile mystery of life? We learn how a father explains to his young children not to fear the monsters who lurk in the world around them—because he ate them, going so far as to describe how they taste like stinky cheese and old shoes. In “Distant Things,” what would we be called if others had not named us? In “Costume Jewelry,” items passed on by relatives speak and vibrate still with the lives of their former wearers. In the heartbreaking “My Dementia Dance with God,” the sweet and fragile mystery of life is set in the starkest relief. “A Mother’s Portrait” tells of the latent grief a son experiences when he considers how a life of hard work has vilified his mother’s body and spirit. Every single poem in In the Tall Grasses scintillates with rich language and imagery; a gift to be relished and savored. Over and over again.

–Joanne Greenway, author of Low-hanging Fruit, True Confessions and Limited Engagement.

“There is a hunger for the knowing,” Michael Olson writes in the title poem of his debut collection, In the Tall Grasses. These richly imagined poems grapple with existential questions and invite the reader to ponder his or her place in a world that is not always—or often—kind. What is the role of faith in such a world? When are we hunter and when are we prey? Olson asks the unanswerable, and yet these poems are not without resolution, reminding us that “this riddle of ignorance/ solved only with our living in each other’s arms.”

–Pauletta Hansel, Cincinnati Poet Laureate Emeritus and author of Will There Also Be Singing?