" Like poets throughout the ages, Elizabeth Stabler uses intermediaries-a wren, bee-fl y, tulips, phlox-to move from the deeply observed world around her into an inner realm where she writes movingly of the "unguarded self," of love's "ferocity and transforming power" and of loss. Her amazing "Schoolbus Sestina" is an unforgettable experience of time and place as is the voice of the painter in "The Bee-fl y and the Lily" who with the bee-fl y seeks to "render our longing immortal"-a wonderful contribution to the ancient theme of artistic aspiration. Alive with a passionate commitment to beauty in nature and the expressive power of language, these poems, like the trilling voice of the poet's wren, return their gift to the reader again and again." -Jane D'Arista, author of The Overgrown Copse & Other Poems