Martha Deborah Hall goes through the major decades of her life and transforms singular moments into images and lines that speak with a voice that is raw, spare, luminous. She holds the mirror of reflection up to us as we see what we have overlooked as she expresses her innermost feelings on love, faith, life, artful living, mortality and self-actualization as daughter, wife, mother, friend, artist and independent woman. As the years pass, she chooses to leave behind the messy, burned parts, the disappointments, the unloved parts, the betrayals, and instead embraces the strength, hope and joy that brings peace and purpose to the very essence of the self.
—Diana Lathrop-Bouchard, Rise Member, Rivier College
In her fifth full-length collection, Martha Deborah Hall explores the gifts and vagaries of aging in a voice that is both arresting and as clear as a vinegar-scrubbed window through which she shows us slices of the human condition with poignancy, humor, and a hard-earned gravitas. An astute observer of contemporary life – both inside and out – she offers poems that sparkle with fresh imagery, well-placed turns of phrase, and a deftly-crafted music that never loses the clean edge of ordinary speech. From her compelling free verse to her dazzling use of traditional forms, she asks the vital question of the later stage of life: "As we achieve our sunset / and head toward silver dust / what will be our testimony?" – and answers it in kind. A must-read!
—Kate Gleason, author of Measuring the Dark (selected by Phillis Levin as the winner of the First Book Award at Zone 3 Press) and director of Writers Submit, an editing and literary submitting service
In Heading Toward Silver Dust, the fifth expose in the life of Martha Deborah Hall, she travels through middle age and beyond, staring down the questions we are afraid to ask. Reflecting upon regrets, angry seas, poignant memories, she resolves to continue along the uncharted road, pondering, "Whose engine will my leftover car keys start?" With a zest for life, humorous insight, and tangled emotions, Hall steers down the path of the human experience, with tender hands and the grace of a seasoned poet.
—Jane Gilman, author of Sunset, and Renewal, has accompanied Hall, on much of her journey, as the co-facilitator of Poets Unbound.
Cover art: Kathleen Andrews Memorial Bench
photograph by Martha Deborah Hall