Sequel

<p><em>Sequel </em>continues the sequence begun in Hawken’s full collection <em>White Bird (Future</em>Cycle Press 2017) in which the predictable seasons of country life serve as foil to the unpredictable course of a beloved’s struggle with cancer. Elegiac in tone resilient in context   T.S. Eliot’s objective correlative is alive and well in this rich yet accessible work. The speaker here looks with a “fierce unflinching eye” at a changed-by-illness world in which a menagerie of animals wild and domestic and birds reflect and enrich a human understanding.</p><p>Language here is melodic and precise the work of a keen ear and a poet well in command of her craft. Hawken often employs an end-line/first word rhyme scheme that wraps the work in language and tumbles the poems down the page.</p><p>If you are a caregiver or know one if you are dealing with cancer or know someone who is  <em>Sequel</em> will bring comfort and the recognition of shared experience.</p>