Some Days the Spoons Talk Back: Poems

To read Chuck Madansky’s poems is to be held by a joyful attention in which the poet speaks to dishes, listens to plants, and eats an apple as a sensual, spiritual act: Delicious, this becoming / each other can go on and on . . . Woven throughout are poems celebrating love grown from a long marriage in which neither of [them] ever expected this grace and are now looking together at the insistent press of mortality. These poems also grapple with issues of social justice, including the poet’s own privilege. This is a book to return to, offering more with each subsequent reading and the wisdom from a long life, thoughtfully lived.

—Jessica Jacobs & Nickole Brown, Award-winning co-authors of Write it! 100 Poetry Prompts to Inspire

Not since Jane Hirshfield has a poet so deftly communicated the human experience to me. Chuck Madansky’s imagery, intelligence, sound and sense, and spirituality give us the last giraffe gone from the earth, meditations on marriage, the seasons of life on Cape Cod, and all the splendor of moons and worlds, / spoons and rocks. Mastering forms and structures, this poet mines the interior of grief, pain, and longing against the backdrop of a divided and dying planet. Madansky inquires into our dilemma of impermanence, and the search for compassion. I always feel changed after reading Chuck Madansky’s poetry. Go on, Turn and re-enter the uncertain light. Why? Because Madansky is a trusted friend. He is listening.

—Janine Certo, author of ELIXIR, winner of the New American Poetry Prize and the Lauria-Frasca Poetry Prize

This collection is layered with poems about the elemental, the old ways, what’s in plain sight but often missed, the miracle of the natural world, and the tensile strength of relationships, memories, and love. Two threads run through all these layers. One is interesting language that beautifully personalizes and freshens the universal. The other is Madansky’s willingness to take risks, to be honest about his best and worst (and ours, too). In one poem, he writes, I know this, know it so well / I could shake it like salt / over mashed potatoes / and you could taste my life. That’s exactly what we do.

—Lauren Wolk, Newberry Honor-winning author of the NY Times Bestseller Wolf Hollow