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Resilience by Marjorie Norris

The cover of Marjorie Norris’s new book Resilience says it all, for inside lies a profusion of poems that, like poppies, stretch, bloom and feed every sense. Using evocative, vivid language, Norris paints ordinary moments with extraordinary color, depth and detail. This is shown in “Tangerine,” where “each orange moon falls wide like happiness/…that sits lunar/…in sweet eclipse.” And in “Love, What is It?” where “…when love works/It smells like vanilla.”

Besides love, nature and family, her palette reaches beyond the mundane. Several poems address 9/11, war and the darkness that looms. In “Imagine” she writes “Compassion has the smell/Of wild orchids and hate/The stink of cabbages/And blood.” But in “Babel” there’s a suggestion of hope: “One language will help us now/if we are willing to speak it.”

The poems in Resilience are accessible to readers of all ages and predilections. Besides her remarkable language, Norris demonstrates how poetry and the simplicity of words can define and illuminate those sublime and, at times, complicated moments in life that crave expression. In fact, as her title suggests, perhaps it is the nature of poetry to be resilient, brisk and strong.

Resilience follows Two Suns, Two Moons, her debut and highly acclaimed book of poetry. A Buffalo native, Norris has been an active member of the literary scene. After studying with Leslie Fiedler, she went on to facilitate writing groups, camps, workshops and writer-in-residence programs throughout the county including at Just Buffalo Literary Center. Every summer for the past 15 years, she has taught creative writing to children and adults at the Chautauqua Institution.

Marjorie Norris reads poems from Resilience on Thursday, June 21, at 7pm at Talking Leaves Main Street (3158 Main Street, near UB South Campus), with a book signing to follow. Resilience and Two Suns, Two Moons are available at Talking Leaves, both the Elmwood and Main Street stores.