More Feathers in the Lake Than Swans by Meg Tyler

Praise for Poor Earth:

“It’s the beautiful simple dignity of the writing, whether speaking of its conditions and occasions of sorrow or of happiness, with such respect for what we are as fellow human beings.  The elegance of the poem is a consequence of her skill at writing beautiful lines;  it is also a moral elegance, composing beautiful lines in beautiful stanzas about how we are on this “poor earth,” living our lives.  These poems know how it is.”

–David Ferry

Meg Tyler’s beautifully made poems find in their counterpoise a counterweight to irrevocable loss. They measure the weight of things – a falling body as against falling leaves – and leave us with an uncanny sensation of their being, as if, in reading the poems, we too are lifting a body and laying it to rest, and then keeping a wakeful vigil afterwards. They are transformed by love, and it shows in their care for all that they consider, and in their formal intelligence.

–Saskia Hamilton

Elliptical and mortally clear-minded, Meg Tyler’s poems circle around the mystery of a central death. But Poor Earth touches also on the correspondent mysteries of birth, mothering, and joyful wonder. Her language is a marvel of chastity and tact. In a noisy world, Tyler brings the gift of intelligent quiet.

–Rosanna Warren