Where Sun Meets Shadow

Where Sun Meets Shadow, Felicity Sidnell Reid's generous poetry collection, is aptly titled: "The sleeper leaps up as light/ and dark play duets across her face." We glimpse "the maple tree, which seems/ to curtsey to the storm." Later, "sun and shadow chase/ each other across the grass." We find lots of drama: a "dangerous corner," an "unruly tent" and "a mouth/ taking us around the teeth of the city." Lovingly crafted, emotionally available, these poems make us feel immediately less alone. At every turn of the page, we are greeted by an insightful, touching clarity, as this poet's keen powers of observation are matched with a deep, worldly concern. The depth of "long ago/ love and the narrative we construct/ to make sense of our lives" is brought into the present, the way "a deer pulls/ an apple from an orchard tree," and we encounter certain familiars. Here, the gardener, snow-shoveler and motorist are as vividly cast as the writer, dancer, painter, "we pupils [who] rushed/ from the prison of our days," and "creative folk/ of all ages." Felicity helps us to know them better, in various tableaux vivant, filling a book we'll want to keep handy!

– Tom Gannon Hamilton, poet/multimedia artist/reception theorist

"Nothing can stop her writing/ she jumps into dark waters/ swims deep/ then climbs aboard a lily leaf." Poems in Felicity Sidnell Reid's Where Sun Meets Shadow are highly engaging intimate narratives, brilliantly conveyed through metaphor, syntax, and sensory details. Each poem offers a unique perspective on nature, art, or lived human experience. This stirring collection, rich in musicality of language, honours transformative moments with warmth, insight, and lyrical grace. A pleasure to read.

–  Lisa Reynolds, author of Pearls of Rain

 Felicity Sidnell Reid is the author of a book for teachers, a series of textbooks for language learners, the novel Alone: A Winter in the Woods (Hidden Brook Press, 2015, e-book in 2020), and the poetry collections The Yellow Magnolia (Glentula Press, 2021) and The Many Faces (Aeolus House, 2022). In 2025 she had poems in the four-poet chapbook Liminal Spaces from Gentula Press. Her poetry and short fiction have been published in anthologies, online journals and collections. She is the co-producer and co-host of the weekly literary radio series Word on the Hills. She chaired two Spirit of the Hills Arts Festivals in 2017 and 2019 and was recognized with a Distinguished Civic Award from the Town of Cobourg in 2021.