How shadows are bundled /

How Shadows are Bundled is an extraordinarily rich collection of poems, many of which explore what C. G. Jung referred to as the 'shadow,' that dark, usually hidden part of each of us individually, and perhaps the troubled vortex of most group identities as well. W. H. Auden, as a poet of conscience aware of the shadow, once said that he reads a poem in two ways, first as a verbal object to be understood, and second as an expression of the kind of person the poet is. In How Shadows are Bundled the verbal objects have a thrilling clarity to them, carrying the reader along into rich, unexplored, and expansive realms and feelings.

"There are few generalities here; the poems are alive with detail. They range from poems about politics, cancer, family travails, and spiritual struggles to hurricanes, asteroids, aging, and the work of other writers and filmmakers. The poems reveal the person who created them to be someone with a hard eye and a deep kindness, someone who refuses to turn away from trouble and pain, an unflinching witness who sees the truth but never runs from delight when she finds it."--V. B. Price, lecturer emeritus, University of New Mexico's University honors program, and editor of the Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry series