Customer Reviews

What We Pass On: Collected Poems: 1980-2009 (Essential Poets Series)

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What We Pass On encompasses everything a great book of poetry should: moving , powerful and vibrant poems that are unforgettable.

If you read one major book of poetry this year, this is the book to buy.

This new and collected volume outdoes even Maria Gillan's previous and beautiful book. There are some especially heartbreaking poems about her late husband, but as always with Gillan's work one finds family, warmth, humor, compassion, and always a world-wideness of view that is incredibly refreshing. I had the pleasure of hearing her read from this book recently, and it was a great experience.

What can I say Maria Mazziotti Gillan is an incredible poet. She can take a moment in time, a small event and present it so clearly you will know exactly how she felt and most of the time you have felt that same way before but did not know the words to describe it. Her background and heritage are nothing like my own but I can still feel an absolute kinship with her experiences and at times I think she is talking about my own fears, my own love, my own regrets and expectations. If you do not own any of her books, buy this one now, or buy it to complete your collection. It includes almost all of her published poems and some great new ones too a truly excellent Collected Poems.