Poetry

A grandchild praying on bended knees. A meeting with a treasured high school friend. The joy of Christmas morning and the twilight of later years in life. With candor, reflection, and heart, Caroline Lee Cutro shares both her supreme joys and profound disappointments in Easy-Reading Poetry, her new collection of poems that explore her experience of marriage, motherhood, and more. Straightforward and honest, these simple, deeply felt poems reveal the vast and varied spectrum of the life of one woman, wife, and mother. Written primarily for her family, this collection will resonate with any wife or mother who may struggle to express the conflicting hopes and frustrations she has encountered over the course of her life. "Dear Daughter," for example, is a poignant account of Cutro's devotion to her daughter, from the very first days of her infancy to the complex days of adulthood, when the Cutro realizes she must let her grown child make her own choices. In "Dreams," she recalls a lifetime of her own dreams, from the simple wish for the tooth fairy visit to the later desires for marriage, family, and riches. In other poems, she pines for lost loved ones, fantasizes about real freedom, and celebrates the beauty in all kinds of flowers. Spiritual and spare, Easy-Reading Poetry offers readers gentle musings on the shimmering aspirations of youth, as well as the inevitable discontent that every human must encounter. As the poet looks back over the course of her life, and considers her own mortality, she shares the rich tapestry of the human condition, from pain of growing old to the bliss of spending time with a grandchild. Throughout, the genuine emotion is always in play, ringing through every work in this quietly elegant collection.