Moon Dance: Island Poems

Susan King brings an array of emotions to her verse chronicles of Great Cranberry Island, "this beautiful complicated place." She pays homage to beloved neighbors and friends, their foibles and felicities, while limning the island's flora and fauna, from asters and rosa rugosa to June bugs and painted ladies. And then there's the buoy bell, "tolling all moments holy." Altogether a remarkable collection. With great heart, Susan invites the reader to her "truest home." The poems in this beautiful collection build a world where we stop to observe a crane fly, bend to a black iris, find comfort on a front porch, listen to the eulogy of an "islander." The island is a place of beauty and griefs where weather is "the great leveler." Moon Dance stands as an historical slice of time, not only describing a beloved Maine island and individual lives, but our imperiled earth itself. When we ask how we are to find hope in such darkness, Susan writes of that wild flower, the swamp candle: "See what the ditch lifts up . . ." This book asks us to pay attention, live fully, and act. Reading it would be a good start.