In Such Wonder by Jonel Sallee

“Open this collection of poems and be enchanted. Share the poet’s wonder as she travels through museums, cathedrals, ancient lands. Jonel Sallee is a pilgrim, always seeking the numinous on her spiritual journey. Look to the heavens with the Magi, be amazed by a star- filled sky with Abraham. Be surrounded by wings in the flight of geese over a lake. See through a translucent Dali painting. Follow Matisse’s Stations of the Cross. Climb a cliff in Italy. You will be right there with Sallee, enveloped by her stunning images. Read these poems slowly and savor every word.”

–Carole Johnston, author of five books of poetry, including Manic Dawn and Purple Ink: A Childhood in Tanka

“The language of these poems tastes like rain; the words drip off the tongue—clean and fresh and sibilant. The heart aches and opens in its longing for mysterious journeys ahead. We move through the lines into green, glowing worlds, the kind that perhaps we experience only in dreams or ecstatic meditations. Sitting with each poem after I had read it, I could feel the room opening into light.”

–Normandi Ellis, author of Awakening Osiris and other mystical texts about Egypt. Her website is normandiellis.com.

“Take a tour through the mind of a poet and teacher who looks to art, or rather through art, into the sublime. Across poems that feel like seeds we are gathering as we read, Sallee contemplates not only the product, but the process, the person (their very hands!) that when moved to create inched that much more closely to something holy. Wonder propels these glimpses into the divine as it swirls, mingles, and merges all around us, which, naturally only leads to more questions: how is this all connected; how does it (and we) become undone?”

–Christopher McCurry, teacher, poet, and founder at Workhorse Writers.  His published works include The Gospel of God Boy and Open Burning.