Synopsis

These poems celebrate the bridge building power of memory – here a version of the imagination – to discover and uncover fleeting presences of a challenging mother, of remarkable characters and people who represent some of the present-day meanings of small-town Vermont’s 1950s understood through the spectacles of the goddess, Mnemosyne. Within the context of memory, then, these poems explore the themes of family roots, the power of memory, and the significance of the past and how poetry can be the occasion for uncovering the multiple layers of identity – heart, mind and soul – all centered and integrated as in these poems.

NB: Stanford Searl was Pendle Hill’s Carroll Scholar right as the pandemic hit.