Alive Together: New and Selected Poems - Lisel Mueller

n nIn a collection that represents over thirty-five years of her writing life, this distinguished poet explores a wide range of subjects, which include her cultural and family history and reflect her fascination with music and the discoveries offered by language. In fact, her book is a testament to the miraculous power of language to interpret and transform our world. It is a testament that invites readers to share her vision of experiences we all have in common: sorrow, tenderness, desire, the revelations of art, and morality--the hard, dry smack of death against the glass.

n nIn the title piece Mueller brings a sense of enduring and unclouded wonder to a recognition of all those whose lives might have been our own. Speaking of marvels, says the poem's speaker, I am alive. Thus we, too--alive together--are marvels, and so are our children: n n who--but for endless ifs-- n n might have missed out on being alive n n together with marvels and follies n n and longings and lies and wishes n n and error and humor and mercy n n and journeys and voices and faces n n and colors and summers and mornings n n and knowledge and tears and chance.

n nImaginative, poignant, and wise--Alive Together is a marvelous book, an act of faith and courage in the face of life's enduring mystery.n