Still Water Carving Light

Still Water Carving Light tenderly navigates the depths of loss and memory. Peggy Shumaker delicately captures the fragility of the human body, the profound bonds between loved ones, and the unpredictable journey of life itself. As seasons shift and bodies age, these poems gracefully explore the ebb and flow of pain and healing. Intimate snapshots of everyday life depict the quiet resilience of those left behind, inviting readers who have experienced loss to connect deeply with their own emotions. With compassionate insight, Shumaker reminds us that while grief endures, it can be embraced, allowing for profound growth and deeper understanding.

ADVANCE PRAISE

“Peggy Shumaker’s poems find the life inside the life of loss, how it works, how it feels. How loss carves furrows in us and leaves us the beauty of carved things. The poems in this collection follow the inevitable trajectory of the beloved’s life, and of the lives of friends, and the love that outlasts it. They touch softly on grief’s tender spots. What I mean by that is my own personal sadnesses feel nurtured by the care in the lines. Each poem is a love song, a lullaby, and a dance.” —Fleda Brown, author of Flying Through a Hole in the Storm

“Is it possible to eulogize the living as well as the dead? To mourn with praise “every cell of us, healthy or rogue” and every season that arrives, even the “season of general anesthetic”? Each page of Peggy Shumaker’s still water carving light answers yes. Yes, it is possible—“for this moment.” Yes, we can count “what we’ve made / of our dwindling lives / glorious.” Everyone and everything these poems attend to—her beloved Joe in his last months, friends and family members still alive in her memory, the named and unnamed thousands who came before her, even the Gila monster, that “gentle venomous friend” of her desert childhood—bears the imprint of Shumaker’s expansive, generous touch.”—Rebecca McClanahan, author of In the Key of New York City

“These poems are so tender and sad and at the same time exultant and full of celebration. Once again, Peggy Shumaker has written a book full of life. All of life. From mountain to ocean, from deep breath to death. I smile and I cry from page to page of still water carving light. What treasure.”—Camille Dungy, author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden