Itinerant by Jane Sasser

 

 

Jane Sasser‘s eloquent poems speak of life’s journey via memories of childhood, parents and relationships.

 

Of her mother’s infirmity:

 

Uncertain on her feet, my mother
stumbles like a toddler, each step
a whole new learning of the world–
as thought she were not the woman
who at thirteen strode around the bend
of a country road right into
the midst of a chain gang…

 

Of the death of her father:

 

I see no final sadness
which I cannot resign
no regrets left
like half-done sketches,
just these haunting memories
my bones will not let go.

 

A relationship:

 

Lying awake, I thought about endings,
how sometimes there’s an explosion
of tangled limbs and veined leaves,
but sometimes there’s simply a slump,
the quiet droop of riven wood
sinking from the green canopy.

 

The words tumble pleasingly off the tongue with a soothing cadence, filled with emotion and wistfulness, subtle humor, and profound insight, each poem executed with great skill and deftness, instilling the need to return to read and savor again and again.