Midwestern Poet's Incomplete Guide to Symbolism

"The lines in this book are vespers, a prayer to the broken hearted. We are swept up in the beauty of form, the spaces in between, the images of a red-tail hawk and a cantering horse. The book masterfully hones the sounds of grief, gutteral and raw, flowing through a body, a mouth, a soul."--Sarah Sandman, author of The Sinew of 47 Years"Out of grief, out of longing, out of her ravishing gift for noticing, comes this numinous and memorable debut by Erica Anderson-Senter, whose sensibility has been born out of her gift for surviving. I adore the rough music of this book, its candid appraisals, and this poet's fearless descriptions of the sources of fear, sadness, love, life."--Mark Wunderlich, author of God of Nothingness"These poems root us deep in Midwestern landscapes as we encounter litanies, psalms, and a lush unsentimental tenderness that sings out "that swift, / startling joy" in the same breath as gutting loss. This is an extraordinary, courageous debut collection."--Emily Mohn-Slate, author of The Falls