Dispatches From Earth by Missy Rezny

Dispatches from Earth is a three-part reflection of life on this planet, a contemplation of all we have and all we have to lose. Paying homage to both the natural world and the interior one, this debut collection stops to revel in daily details and surreal wonderings, the solitude and joy of memory, the bittersweet nature of change.

“With a deft sense of etymology and rhythm, Dispatches from the Earth explores our delicate and evolving relationship to nature, time and motherhood. In such a collection, ordinary images—from plums to moons to dinner plates to blood and snow and twilight—become a little something more, something that seems all too human, full of color and motion yet fragile and spare.”

–Dr. Rachel Harper, Associate Director of the University of Missouri Honors College

“These poems keep a watchful, necessary eye on the Earth and its  processes. They live and breathe “Like rain / Sliding across the moon” yet also turn their gaze inward to explore the haunting nature of a broken lover’s psyche and the unavoidable reshaping of identity that comes with motherhood. Occasionally calling on ancient languages, Dispatches from Earth prods and pokes at some of our most ancient (and yet pressing) questions, and takes us to “The raised edge / Of life.” This is a beautiful debut from Missy Rezny, full of searching poems, full ‘of cracked shadows and time’.”

–Jesse Morse, MFA, PhD, Clark College English Department