Visitation

Poetry. 'The definition of metaphor/ is the transfer of burden, so pay attention.' This, the opening stanza of Maggie Blake Bailey's VISITATION, gives us a taste of what's to come: the body 'an advent calendar;' 'each church a brick leaning against the night.' Bailey's metaphors are at once startling and just-right, and her themes--motherhood, place, faith, and the narratives we carry from childhood into our adult lives--are timeless. What a gift it is to see the world filtered through this poet's imagination and intelligence.--Maggie Smith