In The Tent Called Amazement

In spare, lyric form, this author shares her love equally between the beautiful and the common. She writes of the natural world with an attention to detail that occasionally becomes surrealistic. The blurring of humans, inanimate objects, and animals is common in Walden’s work, where the primary difference seems to be that humans are able to reflect on mortality. In the tradition of William Carlos Williams, she finds an endless source for writing poetry in the world of visual art. Her special fondness for Native American and Inuit art stems from seeing an [Inuit] image of a smiling snowy owl in a gallery window years ago. Her brief, breathtaking poems leave the reader with the sensual fullness of having viewed enchanting works of art in a museum.