Patricia Clark

Given the Trees
In this issue of Voices from the American Land, Patricia Clark, one of our most accomplished poets of the natural world, takes her readers on enchanting journeys through the woodlands of her home state of Michigan. Here the reader can experience how two hawks, working the ravine updraft in tandem cause a rush of fear, how one can lie down under a willow and wake caressed,how one becomes a hamadryad, sorceress, water and depth-seeker, counting the months till summer. Throughout,the poet surprises us with what editor Charles Little calls “transcendental moments,” those sudden perceptions of a numinous interaction of nature and spirit that come to those who observe nature closely and with an open heart.

She Walks Into the Sea
"I’ve been reading Patricia Clark for a long time. She has written some extraordinary poems. She Walks Into the Sea is full of them. She should be admired and read by those who think that poetry matters."
—J i m H a r r i s o n , author of In Search of Small Gods and Dalva

My Father on a Bicycle
"Patricia Clark's poems make a spiritual journey from the Pacific Northwest forests of her childhood--where she was surrounded by the beautiful, dangerous violence of creation as well as deep human relationships yet to be named--to the disciplined gardens of midsummer and of midlife." --Richard Robbins

North of Wondering
"These poems have arrived at the page over a great distance and distillation of experience and after the patience and clarifications of time. They are the work of wonder, acceptance, and maturity of means--nothing wasted, nothing worth saying denied." --Stanley Plumly