Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
In her seventh collection, Dorianne Laux once again offers poems that move us, include us, and appreciate us fully as the flawed humans we are. Life on Earth is a book of praise for our planet and ourselves, delivered with Laux's trademark vitality, frank observation, and earthy wisdom. With odes to the unlikely and elemental--salt, snow, crows, cups, Bisquick, a shovel and rake, the ubiquitous can of WD 40, "the way / it releases the caught cogs / of the world"--as well as powerful homages to the poet's mother and her carpenter's spirit, Life on Earth urges us all to find extraordinary magic in the mess of ordinary life.
From "I Never Wanted to Die"
Even the cut flowers in a jar of water lift
their soon to be dead heads and open
their eyes, even they want a few more sips,
to dwell here, in paradise, a few days longer.