Ledge in Bloomington, MN

Poetry. The various speakers of Nola Garrett's LEDGE talk with each other even as they confront their crisis decisions, well aware of the treachery, beauty, danger, and history that have brought them to the moment of each poem. The new poems, some formal, some free verse, are set mostly in Western Pennsylvania and Florida. A teen age brother's death haunts many of the Pennsylvania settings. One three-poem series is spoken by an alligator. A husband speaks out of his dementia's fear and confusion which lead to a series of divorce poems. The personae of the sestinas and selected formal poems speak from times and places as diverse as Madagascar, Sweden or the Old Testament. Garrett never spares herself; throughout the entire collection she tells us about the grace of lake and river water flowing through and around family, history, murders, theology, divorce, rapes, geology, chicken thieves, Mahjongg games, grief, concerts, our aging bodies, and the other thorns and wild flowers of our lives.
"As a woman writer, Garrett underscores the experience of women in this collection, particularly in the realm of relationships. Also, as one of the best living practitioners of the sestina, she assembles some of the tour de force sestinas for which she is best known. I have followed Nola Garrett's career for years, and so it is particularly satisfying to see that these sestinas will have an even wider audience."—Kim Bridgford
"Garrett's persona struggles with God, with her desired versus proper role, with the way the holy is infused with all that is ordinary—for example, receiving communion from her husband: 'He is opaque, / no flicker of remembering / his body searching mine last night /...All is now.' These are highly imaginative poems, and like all good ones they are slightly unsettling."—Jill Pelaez Baumgaertmer,
Christian Century Review
"How refreshing to open a book of contemporary poetry and become immediately engaged! Here's a poet whose formal expertise combines with her ability to infuse her work with both pathos and humor. While her sestinas are especially remarkable for their variety and power, all the poems in this fine collection are marked by musical language and good storytelling. With the precision of the butcher alluded to in the book's opening poem, Garrett examines the world we all inhabit and spares us nothing."—Andrea Hollander