A Hundred-Year Wind

The sharp bite of nostalgia, the wars we fight against others and against ourselves,and the gentle heartbreaks and joys that sneak up on us with each passingyear: these are the ingredients of life, and the heart of A Hundred-Year Wind.In these pages we encounter Donald, who experiences a fresh slap of isolationwhen he returns to school after the loss of his family: "By association, / Fate ofan ordinary day, / Might go horribly wrong again." And Elva Lea, who "Recalledthe long journey / That began in a tiny bungalow scarcely a hundred miles away,/ A place where eight people tried to reconstitute a family / And failed." We meetchildren who turn branches of oak trees into ships on waves of wind, and grandchildrenwho become "an image on a computer screen talking to a camera."With profound observations of theturmoil that marks each new generation, these poems become our own, and serveas a reminder of the strength of those who came before us, and of the resiliencefound in us all.