Poet Duet

Book excerpt: One of the great, and original, purposes of poetry is to 'preserve the beloved.' This book by Mother and Daughter serves as a carrier of love, documenting family, and the poets' lives, with language and story that add beautifully to our literary culture. -Grace Cavalieri, Maryland Poet Laureate Carolyn Clark's new book enjoys a collaborator- her mother Florence, also a published poet, and, like her daughter, a good one. The collection braids these two, and the poems share similar themes-often a travelogue of love well spent, eyes and ears open. As Florence Adams Clark writes of poetry: "How many lives / I've found in you, / lost: my fingers / ache." Mother and daughter dance a lively duet; the poems are always on the go. So too is the welcome chant of rhyme, more formally in the mother, echoing internally in the daughter, though there is nothing old fashioned or postmodernistically obscure in either. You will read these poems with delight; spread the word. -Jack Hopper, Twice Poet Laureate of Tompkins County, NY; author of Rafting the Medusa Praise for Poet Duet: A Mother and Daughter: There is an elegance to the poetic duet, by Carolyn Clark and her mother, Florence. They flow off each other harmoniously, touching on themes of reflection on the enormity of simple moments, and the gratitude for life and loved ones, with both gentleness and intensity. It is a reflective wisdom, unified by generations, which ruminates on elation and loss, with the patience and understanding that all of it is temporary. -Lauren Reynolds, author of The Light Box, (Finishing Line Press, 2014)