Mothers and Other People by Karen Taylor

 

“In Mothers and Other People, Karen Taylor writes of death, grief, and memory as a tapestry woven into the life of a narrator who is both embedded in and estranged from a cultural mélange of family. Taylor masterfully writes in the hybrid form of the lyric-narrative, each poem exploring a cause and effect but as Charles Simic wisely put it, not necessarily in that order. Taylor has dramatic insight and a cinematic eye. We can pause at the end of every line, linger, and give our vision and heart an opportunity to richly experience what she has offered. She never reports. Death, grief, and memory come into her immediate realization and are then woven through her complex artistry into an enriching and empathy expanding experience, a gift that elicits the best in us. In a world where being humane is endangered, reading Mothers and Other People offers us the invitation, perhaps the challenge that only we can determine that love remains.”

–Jack Ridl, author of Practicing to Walk Like a Heron, named finest collection of poetry by ForeWord Review, and of the forthcoming All at Once to be published by CavanKerry Press, autumn 2024

 

 “This is a beautifully written and heartfelt collection that captures moments in the narrator’s life that are particularly humane and poignant. Members of the poet’s family of origin as well as her chosen family people these poems with their distinct personalities, lodging themselves deeply into this reader’s heart. There is much to admire and savor in this fine collection, which I hope will be the first of many!”

–Lesléa Newman, author of I Carry My Mother and I Wish My Father 

 

 “Moving, vivid, funny poems with an aching sense of the passage of time. Karen Taylor‘s poignant portraits of aged family members (and departed ones) go side by side with the author’s acute and tender personal sense of the loss of old places, objects, and even childhood itself.”

–Donna Minkowitz, author of Ferocious Romance, a Lambda Literary Award winner, and Growing Up Golem: How I Survived My Mother, Brooklyn and Some Really Bad Dates finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award and the Judy Grahn Nonfiction Award

 

“In Mothers and Other People, Karen Taylor uses her keen eye for detail and her deep understanding of the human heart to create a chapbook of devastating emotional depth and insight. Over the course of twenty concise and carefully crafted poems, she sings her reader, and her own self, an exquisite and often excruciating lullaby as she guides us on a journey away from, back to, and finally through the tactile and tangible sights, sounds, tastes, and textures of one deeply felt life.  While the objects of her attention are precise and personal, her talent and integrity as a poet shape these poems into a portal for readers to remember their own precious and particular details. Her words weave together the rents in the delicate fabric of memory as she elevates the recitation of everyday objects and events of life to the elegiac. There is loss here, and betrayal, casual cruelty, and deep and enduring witness to kindness. Let these poems be a balm to your spirit.”

–Tony Amato, writing coach, author, founder of Write Here, Write Now Institute