BOOKS

Phyllis Beck Katz has published two poetry collections.

In Migrations (Antrim House, 2013), the second poetry collection by Phyllis Beck Katz, the author considers life's emotional and physical migrations. She counters the sometime perils of such migrations with the consolations of the natural world and memories of less unpredictable times. By so doing, she attains the philosophical stance of Hokusai, for whom “beauty and disaster exist in precarious equilibrium.”

The artistry and honesty required to reach that stance are an inspiration, as are the poems in this brilliant collection. Daniel Tobin writes, “Katz’s lyrics exhibit beauty, variety, and the poet’s always nimble care—they are the quickenings of a hard-won and vividly practiced cultivation.” 

Purchase this book from The Norwich Bookstore >>
Purchase this book from :
Broadside Bookshop
247 Main Street
Northampton, MA 413-586-4235

In All Roads Go Where They Will (Antrim House, 2010), Phyllis Beck Katz moves from poems reflecting on the troubles of childhood to poems expressing joy in the natural world and the world of art. The book has a dark underside in which death, peril, and loss are faced head on, but in the end, joy and hope prevail. In the great Romantic tradition of Frost and Kunitz, Katz counters grief and despair with her ability to look beyond dark moments and treasure the gifts that life offers. As she says in the book's final poem addressed to her husband of many years, "to have held each other through times of / pain and darkness / will have been enough."

And all of this occurs in verse that sings purely, gifting us with its elegant simplicity and natural philosophy. At the same time, the work of Phyllis Beck Katz rewards multiple readings with the richness of its undercurrents and mythical patterns.

Purchase this book from The Norwich Bookstore >>
This book is not available at the Broadside Bookshop as it is out of stock.