This post is long overdue. I’ve had these books on my shelf in Barcelona for months, after a friend of mine from Virginia who lives here now brought them to me after hearing Lauren speak and read from them in Richmond last spring. Lauren is thriving in Virginia now. Way back when I moved back to Iowa, in the fall of 2012, to teach at a university there, Lauren was there, and she opened her wonderful home and rented a nest-like room to me while I settled myself and then my family in Dubuque. That’s another story. The story here, now, is her moving, inspiring, informative, urgent, and comforting poetry. I read both of these books in the Spanish sunshine perched above the city, occasionally looking up to the hills, resisting getting up to take care of necessities then hurrying back. Most of the pages are dog-eared because I love them. Countless times I was stopped in my tracks, uttering some version of wow, and often with tears welling in my eyes. Read her and live and learn.
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Marianne Maili 