Already There: poems - Paperback

by Shirley Balance Blackwell (Author)

To find a hidden thing already there, one must first pay attention. A childhood spent in the grand but unforgiving landscapes of the desert southwest and a career as a national security analyst reinforced that insight for Shirley Blackwell. Already There is an eclectic harvest of poems found by combining rigorous intellectual investigation with a personal longing to understand both the workings of the cosmos and of the human heart. Whether the topic is caring for a mother-in-law with dementia, finding one's own path, or lessons in courage for a 4-year-old terrorized by a neighbor's vicious turkey, the poet speaks in a voice of unflinching candor. The natural world suffuses this book both as metaphor and for its own, but don't expect a sentimental treatment of the birds and beasties in these poems. They all occupy a niche in the food chain. What you can expect is poetry imbued with depth and whimsy, scientific fact and mythical fantasy, gentleness and raw honesty-all couched in precise, musical language. These perceptive poems celebrate the strength of the human spirit as well as its place in a wondrous universe.

Author Biography

Shirley Balance Blackwell grew up as a "desert rat" in Arizona and New Mexico but became captivated by the mid-Atlantic seacoast during a career in Washington, D.C. devoted to national security issues. Because of her frequent poetic tributes to coworkers and send-ups (à la Gilbert and Sullivan) of office routines, she may be America's most prolific author of classified poetry. Blackwell returned to her beloved New Mexico for her last federal assignment, and is now enjoying retirement in a village south of Albuquerque with her husband, Louis, and two large rescue dogs, a black Labrador and a brown Vizsla (best guess).