Scattered Branches by Marsha Lewis

“Lewis takes us along with her to landscapes both real and remembered in poems that fairly shimmer with the Florida heat.  Childhood memories, veiled in loneliness and wonder are  juxtaposed with present-day realities. In these poems we  cross  state lines with a throbbing heart,  while acknowledging all life on this earth has to offer: respite, the relics of saints, phases of the moon, night blooms, refuge,  foreign currencies , loneliness, regret,  soft places to land and sharp angles.  These well-crafted poems give a window into the kaleidoscopic array of place, and the vagaries of experiencing  the earth, the place we call home , and the richness it has to offer us all. ”
–Michelle Reale, author of In the Year of Hurricane Agnes

“In Scattered Branches, Marsha Lewis lays out a coming-of-age journey, one open-eyed poem at a time. This collection moves the reader from the curious, wary gaze of a child to the regret and vulnerability that comes with self-reflection. Heavy with ripe fruit and poignant memories, the tenderness and serenity of these poems is punctuated by gutted fish, disease, drought, and other lurking threats. The known and unknown stand in close proximity in Lewis’s work.”

–M.C. Benner Dixon, co-author of Millions of Suns: On Writing and Life from the University of Michigan Press and author of The Height of the Land, winner of the 2022 Orison Fiction Prize.