Metamorphosis - Joan I. Siegel

'The gods and their myths have nothing on our human lives. Aging, attending failing parents, watching a child grow, a season change, a relationship falter, or the stars spin away from us—all of life is metamorphosis. With spare, delicate language and sometimes startling metaphors, Siegel takes the pulse of living creatures, even the smallest, delves inside the atom, and spins out to the galaxies. Death and loss permeate these poems and lead to somber reflection, but the poet resists despair.  Against so many losses, Siegel celebrates what is found—a blue heron, music of Bach and Chopin, the child abandoned in a railway station, the gift that makes her a mother. This is a poet who can forge beauty from mortality, like the dying hummingbird, 'its wings singing / fiercely as the heart / in its splintered cage.'' ~ Mary Makofske, author of Traction (Ashland, 2011)  'Whatever her subject matter, Siegel beckons the reader to explore the vast world of nature and the human heart.' ~ Ronald Spatz (Editor, Alaska Quartery Review)