Loose in Far-away Places

“I’m shifting by degree,” we hear in the opening poem of Ann Herlong-Bodman’s Loose in Far-away Places, a collection filled with the wondrous vision of what it’s like to journey—alone—away from the familiar. This bold and adventurous poet must have surprised even herself when one day she left her predictably safe landlubber life to venture seaward, on her own—to the unpredictable and the new. First, there’s the adventure of living on a boat, surely a lifelong dream that includes halcyon days on the water, but undoubtedly also lonely, dark—and sometimes scary—nights on the sea or at the docks. How does Herlong-Bodman find her balance, once she abandons the more-conventional days she has always known? How does one, living by herself, take in whole swaths of solitude and the unfamiliar? With trepidation but compassion and an open heart, we learn from this poet. — from the Introduction by Susan Laughter Meyers