Keeping It All Afloat

Ingrid Wendt's poems vibrate with a pulse for our endurance: a sensory poet's innate negative capability. Wendt shines her language on classic verities of truth and beauty while still bearing witness to horror and grief. Sometimes the poet is at "the wet, level edge of the world." With understated playfulness, she takes us into the Yucatán jungle's pyrotechnics of berries and leaves. Starburst recognitions! Her precision and observation reveal hidden miracles.

-Anne Waldman, author of Mesopotopia

With tenderness and awe, Wendt's poems recreate the splendor of a tropical jungle on the Yucatán coast. Wendt captures the cacophony (and mating!) of birds, the chirping of nearly transparent lizards, and the dazzling fish in undersea hush. She brings a moral reverence, with poem after poem presenting the complex balance of human interaction with the natural world. This is a profound and memorable work!

-Barbara Ras, author of The Blues of Heaven