Weight of Light

In her sixth full-length collection, Martha Deborah Hall explores the shifting lights and shadows that fall on a woman in her so-called golden years, offering us a voice that sweeps the full register from sassy to gritty to tender. In elegant free verse and stunning twists on traditional forms, she gives us a darkly shining world, deftly measuring out "the weight of light"—and life.

— Kate Gleason, Author of Measuring the Dark and Reading Darwin While My Father Dies, Director of Writers Submit

Martha Deborah Hall's Weight of Light is playful, vibrant—both witty and poignant. With a brash, bold, invincible voice, her poems explode off the page in celebrations of living. While the poems abound in the sheer joy of physical existence, the presence of time and death renders them deeply human, universal."

— Candace Bergstrom, Poet and Teacher living in the woods of New Hampshire

Martha Hall has outlined her mission in life to live strong and expects others to do likewise. In her poems she advances a new model for deliberate and conscious aging where action is the key. Her poems are thought-provoking, striking, and sometimes surprising. She crisscrosses class and generational divides, sometimes offering caustic, hard line opinions while at others, heartwarming gestures of a giving self.  Weight of Light is a collection of intimate, powerful, and inspiring poetry.  We witness the author learn to define herself, find her own path, her own voice. It's a rewarding read.

— Beverly Melle, Educator and Recent Friends of the Amherst Library
Artist of the Month Exhibitor

Cover Art: Pigeon Point Lighthouse by Linnea Gershenberg