Mary-Michelle Decoste

Lilacs Mary-Michelle Decoste

In this exquisite collection, DeCoste distills quotidian and epiphanic memories of a woman's life- a childhood crush, a bedtime story, a brief affair - into moments of breath on the page. Set among lilacs, forsythias, crickets and snakes, composed while reading Arabic poetry and The Economist, DeCoste's poems find their way into the reader's own experience and memory. Lilacs is a gift of attention.

-Lisa L. Moore, author of 24 Hours of Men and Archibald A. Hill Professor of English at The University of Texas at Austin

These witty, acerbic, formally deft poems offer many pleasures as they anatomize the estrangements and infidelities of various intimacies. In such poems as her terrific sonnet "Is That All There Is?", DeCoste is clear-eyed, unsentimental, and heart-wrenchingly good.

-Geoffrey Brock, author of Voices Bright Flags

DeCoste's handling of language, in both free and formal verse, is as deft and incisive as it is lyrical. Of special delight is the way DeCoste uses traditional forms to their supple utmost to shape and clarify the often-murky landscape of modern life. The poems in Lilacs linger in the mind and heart of the reader.

-Leslie Schultz, author of Concertina