things of the edges

'things of the edges' takes the reader back to the beginning of Joy McCall's journey with tanka. I paused there, initially writing *through*, but decided that as much as these are poems that transport the reader as well as their writer, I believe they are more than that. Tanka has been an almost lifelong friend to Joy; a companion on this path whose beginning and end are lost to mist. Those of us familiar with her extraordinary collections know her as a singer of songs, a lover of life (especially the small things), a wise woman, hedge-witch, or midwife of old who is capable of bringing an ordinary moment or visceral experience across the threshold into the realms of wonder and magic. We have come to know Joy as wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, and, not least, as a child of the universe . . . ~from the foreword by Claire Everett. _____________ The simple, yet, real sense that comes through reading things of the edges is that Joy McCall lives in tanka time! She sees and feels this world in the beautiful breadth of her five-line vision. Her tanka illuminate life now and then with nuance and passion. This gift of a collection takes us back to where she began living in a tanka dream time. These tanka reveal the sources of her heart and soul. So much of life is a one-way arrow in flight always forward. Thankfully this arrow brings us back on the curve of the earth to where we have been before, without always knowing it. ~from the afterword by Tom Clausen. A delightful little book of tanka by Joy McCall. Cover art by Jonathan Day. Cover design by Owen Smith.