"Like a great photographer, MARA BERGMAN
celebrates the moment and detail at the core
of memory. Together, her poems show the great
changes families experience - the free and fearless
life of a young woman set alongside a dying mother
hanging on so she can hold a great-grandchild, the
one-sided conversations we have with the dead.
Her dynamism is infectious - you are drawn
into this family's wonder, love, compassion, grief
and happiness. Bergman's poems remind me of
Pablo Neruda's belief in the driving force of love:
'Hold on to that, don't let it get away ...' and one
of the final poems, 'The Happiness', delivers the
book's message: 'Before it leaves, I will bury it deep
enough to save.'


After reading these poems, you'll feel braced and
ready, you'll feel wiser and more generous, you'll
want to hold on to moments that contain your own
astonishment."


JACKIE WILLS