Moraine

Tamara Madison’s new collection of poems gathers together her unique, always surprising views and insights into the world and life around her. She sees and finds meaning in things that most of us give only a passing glance to—“the first weed that comes out / when the rainy season begins,” for example. She calls it “thatweed because it’s not / the kind of plant that people / want to know the name of/ . . . dwarfed / by the glowing yellow mustard / canes, outshone by the wild radish . . . / thatweed stays put and grows,/ patient with the passing of time.“ Whether walking and communing with dogs—“He looks at me, his eyes / mutter something about a muse,/ and I understand”—or contemplating her reluctance to throw out the 5-day old daffodils or hothouse tulips withering on her table top—“No matter / how wan and pale their leaves have become / or how spoiled and useless their brief lives / have been, they are still Earth’s children”—these poems make the wonder and connections she feels for the things of this world both palpable and moving.