Unexpected Turn

�Pass with Care, the sign cautions, but you need no reminding as you pass a butte brooding over stegosaurus hills. You know that the next turn promises the unexpected�a Ponderosa laid open by lightning, a herd of cattle sleek as a Brahman vision, a lake tremulous with trout. This is a land where the sky intoxicates the eye, and history gossips in the willows lining the great river. It�s the lost roads that lead to desert gardens; you miss your turn and end up finding your way."In Unexpected Turn self-described �migrant writer" Jim Sagel takes us on a journey at once austere and astonishing, remote and familiar. This is a love letter to New Mexico in spare and understated prose poems. Sagel visits places bathed in light and steeped in cultural history, where blind curves and unexpected turns lead to self-discovery. In a land older than the country, he captures the rare intersections of light, history, and the heart.�Like Jim Sagel, I'm a writer with roots in the oral storytelling tradition. That�s why Sagel's work caught my ear and heart. He has managed to brilliantly capture the voices of the bilingual Southwest with great accuracy, respect and love. . . . Sagel's work is genuine.��Sandra Cisneros