Scape

"More than a book, Scape is a sacred offering, a scape we can hold that directs our gaze and supports us, in the long, shivering road up, up."

--Suzanne Paola, author, The Lives of the Saints



"Luci Shaw notes in one of her new poems that, 'without the impediment / of gravity the dancer / cannot dance.' And it's just that wise understanding of the weights and balances of life that her poems get so right. . . . Such abstractions live in the particulars of an egg's brownness, a snail's glistening trail, a sparrow's 'economical and precise' pecking, and the taut feel of a trout on the line. Luci Shaw's poems incarnate the 'slow pleasure of being.'"

--Robert Cording, author, Common Life



"Luci's most witty, brilliant book. . . . One after another, these poems ground the reader utterly in the concrete and physical--and then, with the jet engine of metaphor, they take off into the world of spirit."

--Jeanne Murray Walker, University of Delaware



"Luci Shaw is a poet of spirit, of nature, and of body. Her gift is an observant eye that looks straight into the face of what she sees. . . . This new collection is made strong by her eye that is faithful to what is, and the ability to describe her world--whether her eye is on the spires or on the sparrow."

--Diane Glancy, Azusa Pacific University



"'The maples drop their syllables until / the grass burns with words.' Once again, Luci Shaw, master of the deceptively simple lyric, captures the 'glory leaking through' ordinary experience. Spun in wonder, freighted with feeling and faith, these poems dart with the grace of small birds or drift like brilliant leaves from old trees. Such a pleasure to read this fine collection!"

--Julia Spicher Kasdorf, author, Poetry in America