And Another Thing: poems by Irene Willis

Irene Willis’ And Another Thing reminds me of Doctorow’s view of poetry as not only something one practices, but as “a state of being in which every moment of one’s existence” is “amplified.” These are poems that rejoice in the “modest happiness” of the present while sifting through the past to honor and immortalize, to extract insight and wrestle with the unresolved. Deep loss and illness share the space with the mottled skin of a banana at its “peak of ripeness,” a trapped mouse, Tasmanian pademelons, spayed dogs, a baseball glove, a piece of toast with “jam and butter spread to perfect thickness. ” Poems braid into a “wreath of memory” that shimmers with compassion, humor, and sharp honesty, a testament to a life in poetry that has become its own memorable poem.
–Mihaela Moscaliuc, author of Cemetery Ink (2021)