Sequel continues the sequence begun in Hawken's full collection White Bird (FutureCycle Press, 2017) in which the predictable seasons of country life serve as foil to the unpredictable course of a beloved's struggle with cancer. Elegiac in tone, resilient in context, T.S. Eliot's objective correlative is alive and well in this rich yet accessible work. The speaker here looks with a "fierce unflinching eye" at a changed-by-illness world in which a menagerie of animals, wild and domestic, and birds reflect and enrich a human understanding.
Language here is melodic and precise, the work of a keen ear and a poet well in command of her craft. Hawken often employs an end-line/first word rhyme scheme that wraps the work in language and tumbles the poems down the page.
If you are a caregiver, or know one, if you are dealing with cancer or know someone who is, Sequel will bring comfort and the recognition of shared experience.