Catching Fire by Patricia O’Brien

Patricia O’Brien’s precisely written poems in her brilliant new collection Catching Fireremind us of how “continuously the world conducts a secret / symphony” and the poet urges us to “attend it before it’s gone, / gone by.” The world O’Brien describes is rich with immediacy—a tree man “knew the conversation of trees. / Gazing up at the constellation of leaves / and limbs with monastic absorption.” In the poem “Judy’s Garden” we read that “she says while digging furrows / she plants her fears, puts in prayers / and her voice, so no green goes unsung / in this garden, the open hymnal.”  This book is highly recommended for anyone who wants to live inside poetry’s healing power.

Leah Maines, best-selling, award-winning author, editor and actor