This poet is one who not only looks but also sees, her eye welcomingly attentive to the diminutive and the immense. Whether it's horse or wasp, hawk or songbird, solitary walker or communal cooks at work, the poet spirits out of these subjects the root and feather of our shared daily lives. Stewart's poems blend grace and the honest edge age delivers to a poet afraid of nothing but the missed chance.

Kevin Stein, Illinois Poet Laureate

The best poets have always been those who can connect with Nature in a way that is reverent and joyful, and for seven decades, Marydale Stewart has been observing her world with a poet's soul. With grace and style, she transforms everyday events into sacred moments of beauty, even the details of her own aging process. She delights in everything, from a president who was scandal-free for his entire eight-year administration to her adopted cats, Zelda the dog, her backyard birds, and deer who dance after the hunters have gone. Lying in the sharp-edged grass of a Kansas field, she tunes into tragic memories of a pioneer woman making the long trek to Santa Fe, and a few poems later, she writes about pioneers of the future settling on Mars. Light touches of humor, as in "Murder Scene" and "The Decision," round out this collection, which is her best yet. Yes, the years have been very good to Ms. Stewart. Her doctor has said her heart isn't working as well now, but her poetry says otherwise.

Boston Literary Magazine
About the Author: Marydale Stewart is a retired English teacher, administrative librarian, and technical writer and editor and has lived in Illinois, Kansas, and Colorado. She received her Ph.D. at Northern Illinois University and taught at NIU and a number of community colleges.

Her chapbook Inheritance was published in 2008 by Puddin'head Press, Chicago. She has two full-length poetry collections, Let the Thunder In, published in 2014 by Boxing Day Books, Princeton, IL, and Risk, by Kelsay Books, Hemet, CA, in 2017. Her novel The Wanderers was published by Black Rose Writing, Castroville, TX, in 2017.

She has poems in After Hours, Ascent, Assisi, the Aurorean, Boston Literary Magazine, Chocorua Review, DoveTales, Eternal Haunted Summer, Foundling Review, Fredericksburg Literary Review, Friends Journal, Midwestern Gothic, Northwind, River Oak Review, Willow Review, and Writers Resist, and anthologies A Quiet Shelter There, Hadley Rille Books, 2015, and Secrets and Dreams, Kind of a Hurricane Press, 2016.