The Morning After Summer by Marion Brown

“In its tender, direct exploration of mortality, The Morning After Summer turns attention from losses and disappointments of aging to the surprising redistributions of body and personality that keep a good life interesting and vital all the way through. “Nothing so clear as sight/at risk” begins “Depth Perception”; through the attention of this skilled poet, wondrous depths of the ordinary come into focus again and again. Together, the poems of this fine collection consider whether “all our moments/fit into the last” and show us how intimate records of becoming connect us more profoundly with cycles and seasons of the natural world.”
–Elizabeth Savage

Rating:  ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]

“Writing a collection of lyrical poems about aging and dying as Marion Brown does in her second chapbook, The Morning after Summer, takes courage. Her first poem, “Forest Succession,” introduces the metaphor of nature to grapple with this topic, “…Barbs/grab your clothes.” “A cage/of trunks captures you as nakedly as age.” The maturing forest, an allegory for aging, becomes one with the woman as “you stretch like a leaf for light.” In the title poem, she celebrates positive and negative aspects of aging through lyrical observations, bowing to the world that awaits us all in the concluding stanza, “You remain where leaves/do not blow and noise never.” These valiant poems embrace aging and death and merge them with the natural world where they belong.”
–Margo Taft Stever

Rating: ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]

“In this sharp, poignant collection of poems, Marion Brown goes beyond the tidy and enters into the forest of unruly reality. Life unto death, step by step, sound by sound, a path opens– signs and gestures along the way, even as the speaker who “waits for nothing” all the while tries to realize everything.”

–Sophie Cabot Black

Rating:  ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]