Miriam Sagan

Poetry can either draw me in or leave me out in the wild with no cover. What I found in Miriam Sagan's collection of poems "What Solitude Sees in Me" is a warm blanket of cover that kept me reading and living in her solitude. I loved "Fever Dream" and "Tent Rocks". The imagery and use of words wrapped me in a warm cocoon. There were a few poems in the collection that left me wanting more.....but overall I found this collection of poems to be beautiful and authentic.

Thanks for Stopping By by Miriam Sagan is a moving and introspective poetry collection that delves into themes of mortality, memory, and human connection. Written in the wake of a life-changing diagnosis, the book explores the shifting emotional landscapes of living near death. Sagan combines a sharp awareness of history, both personal and universal, with vivid imagery and humor. The poems reflect on family, love, and everyday life, presenting an honest and often poignant contemplation of show more life’s fragility. I really appreciated the depth of the poems in this collection. show less

I buy and read a lot of poetry, and it pains me to say I'm disappointed by much of it, so much that sometimes when something really remarkable comes along I'm startled by it. Such is the case with Miriam Sagan Thanks For Stopping By, a book of poems written after the diagnosis of a rare form of cancer. A note to this effect appears at the end of the book, but I was aware of it before I started reading. Ms. Sagan says she started writing poems "in the heat of the moment," and indeed these show more poems are very much moments in time, flashbacks to her life before the diagnosis, even the thoughts of other people.

Anyone who has ever had a trauma in their life will recognize what it's like to be thinking of something happy or something before, something that doesn't include the trauma, and then have that trauma suddenly reappear, and cast everything in a different light. Some of these poems are like that, such as the one that seems to be about something else entirely, before the line "but this train never arrives/it only departs," while others are a more direct response to the diagnosis. Sometimes the connection is implied, sometimes it is explicit. The bad thought has taken hold, even taken over, but life continues, sometimes joyfully, sometimes maddeningly.

Anyone who cares about poetry, about trying to make creative sense out of things even when they stop making sense, will be rewarded by reading this book, and anyone who's ever felt a hurt or a sadness, will feel an emotional bond with its author. I won't speak about the courage it takes to do this kind of thing, because it's entirely beyond my experience and comprehension. The poems are beautiful and heartbreaking, full of intelligence and attitude, acceptance and frustration, beautifully rendered details sad and happy, connected and not connected, as if to remind us that the story goes on as it always has, as it will go on without us. show less

A starkly beautiful collection of verses with themes of mortality, illness and memory. The author uses language with the precision and intention of a doctor's scalpel which can sometimes cause meaning to cut the reader to the quick. I read these poems cautiously, giving myself space to ponder and reflect.

Favorite Poems: in the Soviet-era apartment; the lettuce has finally bolted; nothing was ours in common; papaya slices lie cool; I cut the screen door; a pregnant woman; three gangbangers show more walk into a bar in Espanola; amphoras under turquoise water; zig-zag; I won't outlast; once I was sick in Italy; sometimes it takes a soft night snowfall; in the old hotel on the border show less