{"product_id":"in-the-salt-marsh-9781400042296","title":"In the Salt Marsh","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this strong  appealing collection  Nancy Willard shares her passion for observing the mysteries of the natural world  particularly the flora and fauna of Cape Cod and the Hudson Valley  where many of these poems are set. We see  through her eyes  the coming of darkness to an empty orchard  the retreat of deer at dusk  and the breakup of a river with the onset of spring. Willard is also deeply engaged with the living creatures that populate her world. Her poems record her encounter with a moon snail and her celebration of the ladybugs she sends into the garden and the butterflies that alight on her shoulders like ghostly kisses.  Amid poems about the intimate presence of nature are expressions of absences deeply felt. Willard is drawn not just to the inhabited world but also to the empty spaces with which our passage through life is strewn. In The Absence at the Swing  a rabbit watches a swings back-and-forth motion just after the children have left the playground; in Niche Without Statue  she takes us to an alcove scoured \/ to stucco light and tells us  Somebody lived here. Stepped away. No tracks. We learn  too  of the presences she misses most deeply  as in Phone Poem  in which she imagines receiving a telephone call from her father after his death.  Whether she is cultivating a sense of the life that is all around her or attending to the losses felt within  Nancy Willard never ceases to enchant us with the sense of dedication and awe that graces her verse.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67923623149621,"sku":"ByrdShop_1400042291","price":100.87,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781400042296.jpg?v=1794109810","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/in-the-salt-marsh-9781400042296","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}