On Horsebarn Hill

In these searing yet joyous memory poems, Rives takes the reader back on a journey to where it began. "Not a joyous time/the day of my birth, but I was optimistic." Looking back at her early life on Horsebarn Hill, where "the sky meant everything to me," she could say "I knew what happy meant." But in another plaintive poem, recalling the tragic circus fire that had killed hundreds, she writes, "I barely understood that our good fortune in living there/had come from others' searing sadness ... only then did I begin/to feel the heat from life's burning edge." Whether it be a poignant meditation on changing crayon colors or "the cobalt waves in my mother's eyes," the poet reminds us to look closer and feel the "burning edge" of each moment.

-Gene Twaronite, Poet and Author of The Museum of Unwearable Shoes and The Family That Wasn't: A Fable

On Horsebarn Hill is an intimate collection by Janet McMillan Rives where you will be spirited away to a "bright, luminous world" of a girl born in the "dead of winter 1944." In each poem, like a strike of a match, a warm, poignant memory blazes forth of a Formica kitchen table with angel food cake, full lunch pails, a mystical stone wall, a visit to the dairy cows and the family that lived there-both "cobalt" and "steel." You'll experience the pleasure of silence and laughter, the strength of accepting change, the lesson to "keep searching."

-Polly Alice McCann, Managing Editor, Flying Ketchup Press

In "This is the Day," Rives writes: "a vivid yellow chariot...spirited me to this bright, luminous world." The speaker welcomes readers to Horsebarn Hill, painting the scene in colors of place and childhood-"Prussian Blue/our New England sky/Indian Red, Umber, Carmine/leaves clinging to October maples"-a world in which one can easily see "what happy meant" to its young protagonist. Rives has mastered the art of contextual reflection to heighten the collection's heart: the portrayal of an enduring connection to the experiences and emotions of a younger self such as snow days, riding horses, and exploring nature's tiny treasures. In her hands, it is easy to be spirited away into the joy of growing up, belonging, and home.

-Maria Picone, Managing Editor, Chestnut Review