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By Joanne Clarkson

Published 6/20/2017

Poetry. “Joanne Clarkson’s THE FATES is a relentlessly engaging collection; you’ll be hooked from the start. ‘Anything can be spun: mare’s tail, thistle, / free will. My task is dust / and the sticky milk of love,’ she writes, assuming the guise of one of her three presiding goddesses. Like them, she spins, measures, and cuts—birth, life, and death—with language as her vital thread. Whether exploring her personal history or the stories of widows coping with grief, at almost every turn Clarkson draws from her broad experience as a hospice nurse. These poems display a deep compassion; their wisdom has been earned; and always they guide us toward finding ways ‘to beat back blues / and yellows, every bruise, and just release / into the terrible need to live.'” —Richard Foerster