“In the sublime first poem in Dungy’s (Soil, 2023) marvelous new collection, the speaker’s grandmother and the rolling hills of America are juxtaposed. “You have witnessed, America, how pleasant hillsides can quickly catch fire. My grandmother could be like that. But she protected me, too.” What follows is a stunning exploration of motherhood, the natural world, nostalgia, and life as a Black woman in America, set within the complex history and landscape of a country where “there is not a place I can wander inside you and not feel a little afraid.” Whether lamenting the loss of a childhood safe space, noting the threats of the modern world, elegantly illustrating banal yet terrifying dangers (“Poem revised in a 12th-floor hotel room after noticing a man in the building across the street was holding binoculars”), or presenting a snapshot of a Midwest winter (“The gray seeped into us and we were hard on each other”), Dungy offers vivid language and subtle yet powerful imagery. With transportive clarity—“Pittsburgh, late April. Cold as the setting sun burnished mirrored buildings bronze”—Dungy brings the reader fully into each moment.” — Allison Escoto
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