Rain, Like a Thief

Description

Poetry. Barbara Swift Brauer's RAIN, LIKE A THIEF, explores the identity of self through time, relationship, and the natural world. "Nothing remains / in the old containers," she tells us at the end of this stunning second collection, an observation of the physical world that serves as a description of the poems themselves. From winter days when the sun "clicks on like a furnace, clicks off" to the "thin, squeezed twee" of varied thrushes, the natural world is rendered so closely, with such care and delicacy, that the world itself seems transformed. Through lyrically precise and visually evocative language in poem after poem, Brauer reveals to us that in any life, the real thief is time. With her refusal to settle for the easy sentiment or to avoid the harder truth, Brauer makes us see those familiar old containers—pain and loss, love and death—in new ways. This revisioning, opening our eyes and hearts as it does, leads to what "Winter, San Geronimo" shows us we can steal back from both rain and time: "New air comes / rain-washed / into our lungs."

"In RAIN, LIKE A THIEF, Barbara Swift Brauer looks directly at loss and aging with compassion, grace, and even humor. She's a poet of wonderful transparency and economy, and evokes the delights of ordinary life as well as the passage of time. Brauer speaks to us in a clear, intimate voice: we seem to be listening to a wise friend who is telling the truth."—Ellery Akers

"Every poem takes you along on a journey and brings you safely home. This is a book you must have. You will want to read it again and again."—Gail Entrekin

Author Bio