Shouldering

Precision and mystery mingle and ripple through this beautiful collection of poems. As Julia Leverone paints landscapes, waterscapes and cityscapes in which human figures move darkly amid effects of light and space and time, to a meditative music, she brings you with her: "you are the one seeing," and you can say, with the poet, "I am changed." -Alicia Ostriker, author of The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog
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"Shouldering," meaning "what is lifted up"-Julia Leverone's poems treat the serious weight of their themes with such clarity and ease it is as if the words themselves were transparent. That is to say, the poet's language never gets in the way of the reality of her material; the truth of her language takes us there immediately, without burden. -Stanley Plumly, author of Orphan Hours
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There are some kinds of stillness so actively in motion that we can hear a strong, steady breathing in there at all times, deep at some cellular level-these poems by Julia Leverone have that, and they make me feel entrusted to some enterprise very large indeed: a wisdom available only in our truest perceptions of the world. They work hard, with subtle and precise intensity, but never seem to break a sweat. Their fresh, complex reckonings move me. -David Rivard, author of Standoff