Bowlfuls of Blue—poems by Alexandra McIntosh - Paperback
Bowlfuls of Blue—poems by Alexandra McIntosh - Paperback
A longing for wonder and communion with the natural world can be felt throughout the pages of Alexandra McIntosh’s debut poetry collection, Bowlfuls of Blue. Newness within routine is a frequent return in McIntosh’s work. Like long conversations with traveling companions, recurring words and refrains mirror the cyclical experience of life in a human body, as well as the nature of the entire cosmos. The poems in this book survey communities—human, animal, spiritual, botanical, and geographical—to provide an honest meditation on life, one that acknowledges both its beauty and violence, shining “like the glare of the river on a day in August.” The reader walks with McIntosh in these pages through dreams, the stories of ancestors, her native Kentucky and Ohio River Valley, memories of childhood, contemplations on God and humanity, her brother’s wedding, and her grandmother’s passing. These are poems of life in all its seasons.
ISBN-13: 978-1-954573-04-8
eISBN-13: 978-1-954573-05-5
“Bowlfuls of Blue creates a world where woodpeckers, goldenrod in ditches, and snails oozing out of rusty shells all speak of beauty. The poems in this collection revolve around family, the natural world, and questions of faith. Alexandra McIntosh creates an earnest voice filled with wonder: “I once heard a man say, God / is doing 10,000 wonderful things right now . . . We must be underestimating.” Whether traveling in Spain, sleeping on a houseboat, or driving through the rolling hills of her Kentucky home, the speaker sees the world anew in ways that inform her belief: “my faith isn’t concrete; / it’s wild flowers.” These observant, meditative poems rooted on earth cast their gaze upward, driven by hope.”
—Laura Van Prooyen, author of Frances of the Wider Field
“In Alexandra McIntosh’s Bowlfuls of Blue, you will find lyric poetry alive with beauty, presence, and benedictions. Here the phenomenological is flecked with relationships, wanderings, and dailiness. Her poems capture extraordinary ordinary marvels. “I tried to stay awake for the meteor shower,/ the Perseid Outburst dripping fire, searing / brackets across the sky.” Deceptively plainspoken and quietly revelatory, the poems are filled with the gestures of living. McIntosh’s words invite us into the world: its wonders, mysteries, and enchantments. This is a powerful debut collection.”
—Hoa Nguyen, author of Violet Energy Ingots
“For this speaker, the world is a wonder and a holy place. Nature is a momentary stay against confusion, a place to believe and to love, but it is also fragile and harsh. Robins pluck snails out of their shells. A child is left to blow on a feather just “to keep the whole thing afloat.” The speaker is as implicated in the violence as the rest of the animals with actions like leaving the cicadas “writhing in piles…for the neighbor’s cat.” And we are all left to ask, “How can we be sure that our existence amounts/ to nothing more than survival?” Yet we keep returning to beauty, to connection between people and animals, to the stars dripping from the sky, to the small things like “that glorious mystery called evaporation.” And the word choices, the sound, the line—the journey these poems take me through with their language—leave me catching my breath by the end of the collection, especially with moments like this: “soft things need soft language to match.” This is the kind of poetry I long to read and return to—a brilliant first collection by Alexandra McIntosh that I will be sure to share with many.”
—Kelly Moffett, author of A Thousand Wings
