Commotion

“Commotion has great heart and eloquence, as it shows us moments of the sheer intensity of living, whether in joy and love or in sorrow and in anxiety about our world. Karen Sagstetter writes about fragility–of relationships, of the planet, of our ways of life–and our world needs every witness it can get, to celebrate its beauty and to decry its woes as she does. She has seen more of the world than most of us, and she captures its ‘beautiful extra hours of light’ as well as its ashes, its mercies and mercilessness, and its demeanor when it ‘flinches at the scent of human, of evil.’ Let us believe–to adapt one of her lines–that she has ‘made it to the world’s bedside in time’ and that her words will help us all sustain what we can of its recovery. She has the courage of a faithful guide.”
–Reginald Gibbons, author of Last Lake, How Poems Think, and many others.

“These seemingly simple, colloquial poems move in unexpected directions and pack quite a punch! A commotion is what a reader’s emotions will go through after spending time with this fine work.”
–Linda Pastan, author of Insomnia, A Dog Runs Through It, and many others.

“In tones that range from antic to elegiac, Karen Sagstetter has conjured the commotion of ongoing life. Keen-eyed and tender, these poems reanimate lost scenes, lost loves, and celebrate the wonder of ordinary hours. While Commotion rides the current of passing time, Sagstetter acknowledges the stillness that will follow: ‘Who knows whether worry / or joy stopped the wild river / but all the ripples have vanished’— except, perhaps, in words on a page.”
–Jody Bolz, author of Shadow Play, A Lesson in Narrative Time, and The Near and Far.