Garden of Things Lost

Paula Sayword's Garden of Things Lost, contains the unspeakable beside theordinariness of everyday life---the profane and the sweetness of life. The poems hold theholiness of an inner world with the details of our mundane selves. Holding these twoelements together, her words reach all of us: mothers, sisters, lovers, children (our lossesbecome her losses), hers, ours. The poems merge the sacred inner world of ourselveswith life's duties; the reader is left with both these worlds as we traverse her path on ajourney from one's beginning to reconciling one's limited time in this blessed life of hers and ours. We, too, "stumble after God." We come out on the other side bothfulfilled and triumphant, a garden that continues to grow as we face loss.Abigail Warrenauthor of Air-Breathing Life and Inexact Grace