Possum, Beaver, Lion: Variants - Softcover

Voss, Sarah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1635343119 ISBN 13: 9781635343113

Publisher: Finishing Line Press, 2017

About this title

About the Author:

Sarah Voss is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister, a past math professor, a contract chaplain at Methodist Hospital in Omaha, the author of many works about religion and math/science (dedicated website: www.PiZine.org), a lucky grandmother, an incurable poet (interview: http://rkvryquarterly.com/interview-with-sarah-voss/), and a mystic (interview: http://www.centerforsacredsciences.org/index.php/Holos/holos-voss.html). She and her spouse Dan Sullivan-both young-at-heart-live in an old farmhouse in the middle of Omaha. Sarah's poetry has appeared in such print journals as Writer's Journal, Ellipsis, Earth's Daughters, The MidWest Quarterly and The Mid-America Poetry Review; in collections including Nebraska Presence: An Anthology of Poetry and Times of Sorrow, Times of Grace; and online in r.k.v.r.y Quarterly, Midway Journal, and Sacred Journey. In 1991, while completing her hospital training as a chaplain, Sarah produced a very well-received chapbook of poem-prayers for the Department of Pastoral Care at the Immanuel Medical Center in Omaha. Now, twenty-five years later, Possum, Beaver, Lion: Variants is her first traditional collection of poetry. She has been refining her poetic craft for a long time!

Review:

With unflinching courage and skill, Sarah Voss’s poems explore aging and the human need for purpose while defining the possum, beaver, and lion in all of us. The details and images are personal which make them universal. In one poem, the granddaughter’s emotions are described “...on a teeter-totter.” In the next, the grandmother’s “...emotions ride inside on / escalators. Sometimes / I still take the stairs.” Later, Voss writes, “...until we tickle the sky / with new-found hope...” Moving through this collection, the reader “thanks this holy day” along with the poet, despite the setbacks. Wonderfully crafted and wise, these are poems to carry and to share. 

Cat Dixon

 

 

This collection especially illustrates the talents of Sarah Voss. Using her ingenuity and fresh, concise language, she creates a work of rewarding complexity for the reader. In her insightful and articulate analysis of the human psyche, she plays a large range of human emotions entwined with a keen sense of humor. 

Cheryl Arends

 

 

In Possum, Beaver, Lion gimlet-eyed poet Sarah Voss takes us deeply into her world, and shields us from no pain or emotions. From anger and frustration in “How You Know I’m Mad: A Response to your ‘Poem in 7 Parts’” to gentle, playful tenderness in numerous poems about her grandkids, then to a loving look at spousal foibles in “Things My Husband Doesn’t Know I Do,” Voss’ deft voice guides us through her world like a seer. Clearly, Sarah Voss not only reached “a hard seventy” but some hard-earned wisdom as well. You will come away from these poems smarter about being human, and about the good that poems can do.

Greg Kosmicki

About this edition

• Publisher: Finishing Line Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1635343119
• ISBN 13: 9781635343113
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 46