Waking at Night by Amelia B. Winkler

Amelia B. Winkler’s Waking at Night tosses and turns with vivid images of the past and the present, questioning both. “They were seven in two bedrooms over the store./Did they sleep head to head/or head to toe?” one poems asks. What ever happened to “the intended suitor/with the full head of brown hair?” another poem wonders. Whether mulling over family, desire, or a shiny new car (see “Jubilate Honda”), these are poems of heart and humor, of a full life.

–Suzanne Cleary, Professor, English Department, SUNY Rockland, 2012 winner, John Ciardi Prize in Poetry

Amelia B. Winkler is an avid and discerning collector of the data of the senses, a keen observer of a world whose particulars she recounts as both ironist and celebrant. Her poems engage the sensuous details of modern life, from hosiery to a Honda, and her meditations unfold with humor and grace. Waking at Night savors memory and the present moment with equal relish, inviting us to reconsider even light itself, “if you manage to catch it / at just the right hour of day.”
–B.K. Fisher, Poetry Editor, Boston Review, 2011 Winner T.S. Eliot Prize in Poetry from Truman State

”The poems in Waking at Night are intimate, personal narratives that confront the major and minor tribulations of daily life. At times ironic, always inquisitive, each poem will satisfy all who love language laced with wit and insight. And the way the poet unearths these insights and what is at the very core of each poem is humor– a humor in all its subtleties that adds richness and texture to a world that often is in desperate need of it.”

–Kevin Pilkington, prize-winning poet and novelist, member writing faculty, Sarah Lawrence College

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]