Verge by Karen Dale

Karen Dale has a gift for holding her experience with both warmth and unflinching clarity – no matter what. Verge captures her experience with widowhood in the same transformative voice as her previous volume “The Long Work” – which embraced her journey and recovery from cancer. I am looking forward to taking whatever journey her muse takes her to next. Whatever it is, it will lead to joy.

Rating: ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]

Karen Dale’s poems capture how, when faced with loss, hollow social interactions become a brittle cage, and words spoken “in buoyant times,” come to haunt us with their promises. A very moving collection.
–Jennnifer Moxley, Professor of Poetry and Poetics, University of Maine and author of six books of poetry most recently The Open Secret (Flood Editions)

Rating: ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]

Karen Dale writes about life after her spouse’s death, “being stripped bare,” and having to navigate a “flight of sorrow.” She helps us to acknowledge that we are all on “the verge of emergency” and will, sooner or later, need to find ways to cope with our own loss and grief. Dale’s poems are filled with compassion and reveal both an inner strength and a sense of self-preservation. Her beautifully-crafted poems overflow with perceptive observations that will resonate with readers on multiple levels.

–Wendy Rosenberg, Author of In the Waiting (Finishing Line Press)

Rating: ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]

In Verge, Karen Dale’s voice sings out with a mix of quiet subtlety and bold tenacity in stirring visual language. From themes of grief and loss to the ironic and witty explorations of “kitchen math,” this collection tells of places and spaces that matter. The rich overtones of Dale’s imagery linger long beyond a single reading.

–Marney K. Makridakis, Bestselling author of Creating Time and Hop Skip Jump (New World Library)

Rating: ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]