Between the stars where you are lost by Mary Christine Kane

In Mary Christine Kane’s first collection, Between the stars where you are lost, we are given such a vivid portrait of a girlhood, considered and wondered over; we are in a trance of her memories, given indelible details, held by the power in this poet’s tone of voice. She writes: “They are told, any minute now. They are told, these are the best years.”  And we are captured by this particular childhood, the pleasures, the longing, the mystery of God’s presence and absence. She writes, “Let’s be held; let’s not say love is fleeting,” and it breaks our hearts. This is a beautiful book, written by a poet who understands what to say, and what to protect.  Read this work.

–Deborah Keenan, author of Willow Room, Green Door: New and Selected Poems, and nine other collections

Mary Christine Kane’s luminous poetry debut Between the stars where you are lost is rich with longing — for loved ones remembered, for hope for an afterlife, for an acceptance of absence. Kane grounds contemplation about love and loss in memorable everyday images: slightly crooked curtains, grass-stained tennis shoes, wafting cinder. The speaker leads readers on a quest through the flushed cheeks of childhood to the mature understanding that life is what occurs “in the meantime.” To truly live, we must “follow the notes of the music / into our bones” and hold it there. Kane is a keenly observant poet, able to thread between the physical and spiritual with grace and eloquence.

–Paige Riehl, author of Suspension and Blood Ties