The Red Coat

Jane Ellen Glasser's fifth poetry collection begins and ends on the metaphor of the title's image: "I will wear gratitude like a red coat, / forbearing the shifting/ seasons of hope and doubt." The book consists of six sections, beginning with an affirmation of a good life despite-or perhaps because of-the challenges and difficulties inescapable when one has lived a long time. Loss is the natural consequence of enduring, and Glasser does not shy away from exploring themes of loneliness, illness, and death, transmuting what is painful into art. Her words open a little door for the reader to enter and say, "Yes, I've been here." In one section, she addresses life's other big theme-love, its intoxication and heartache. In a hallmark grouping of ekphrastic poems, the lines are inspired by the works of artists as diverse as Ingres, Botero, Seurat, and Manet. Another series explores the weird deaths of famous writers. We also find signature Glasser stuff: lyrical poems suffused with imagery of birds, trees, mountains, rivers-nature as mirror into a deeper understanding of human nature. In circular design, the collection closes on affirmation. This is Glasser at her best