Books

In this second collection of work, t. l. cummings has composed with lyric eloquence an album of freeze frames and flashing images that catalogue the winding path of a poet becoming herself. Through her poetic snapshots of a carefree childhood, the vicissitudes of becoming an adult, finding love, marriage, the soul bending loss of a child, and her reflections on aging and politics, she conveys the salvation that comes from finding solace and peace in poetry.

Cummings writes of her transplanted family, her mother's leap from old Ireland to a new homeland in North America, as well as the journey from Mexico by the mother of her grandchildren, with all of the sadness and the joy encountered by immigrants. But, most of all, she writes of loss, of the bitter moments when a beloved child is taken. Her elegies for a son whose life ended before he reached full manhood take us through the darkness and back to the light, and even to sweetness. Because there is sweetness everywhere for those who are willing to look. Cummings has looked and she has found not only sweetness, but comfort. She passes both on to us, her readers, in a poignant poetic voice that speaks directly to our hearts.