If Words Could Save Us (Available with CD)

Charm is difficult to define but we know it when we see it and we see it on every page of Anthony Abbott's elegantly crafted, moving poems, whether elegiac, confessional, allusive, or slyly comic. Though dealing with deep affairs of the heart--loss, sainthood, memory's wounds--Abbott writes, to borrow Marianne Moore's words, in language cats and dogs can understand. His sixth collection is likely to engage anyone who picks it up, both those who avoid poetry as well as the happy few who are addicted. ---- JOEL C. CONNAROE, President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

Anthony Abbott's most recent collection of poetry is stunning in both craftsmanship and sensibility. In poem after poem he forges a compassionate pact with the world, and like all enduring pacts, it is one that sustains and confirms--the poet's life, ours, and the great healing powers of language. ----ROBERT HEDIN Author of Old Glory and Co-Editor, Great River Review

Oh Lord what a wonderful book--joyous and profound. Tony Abbott deals with nothing less than the great circling round of life itself, the whole ball of wax: from youth to the unexpected grace of old age. "The gifts of the heart are holy" indeed, and words can save us, if they are Tony Abbott's. This volume epitomizes the highest pleasure and purpose of poetry. ----LEE SMITH Author of Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger and The Last Girls