Intermittently Awesome

As a college English professor, poetry was my specialty. I happily devoted much of my attention and many of my waking hours to writing poems and critiquing the work of others.  Since leaving academia due to chronic illness and intermittent disability, I have fewer hours of wakefulness, and my attention is far more sporadic.  In this state of cognitive scarcity, poetry is the genre I read and write the least. What I thought would be my life’s work sometimes feels like the stuff of another life entirely. Reading Lisa Ampleman’s latest collection, however, reminded me what poetry can do and why I need it in my life now more than ever.  Reading and reviewing this slim, 126-page volume took months in my current condition, but it was worth every minute.  Note that I've attempted, though not always successfully, to retain the book's original formatting when quoting from it.  Prose selections appear in quotes. Poetry appears indented in stanzas. Brackets and ellipses indicate I've