Finding Tongues In Trees

Finding Tongues in Trees, celebrated Door County poet Barbara Larsen's sixth poetry collection, takes us on a journey that explores the natural world, her life experiences, works of great poets, and the transcendence of the commonplace. The poet joins her acute observation and insight with superb craftsmanship to bring us a set of poems that is resonant and thought-provoking.

In the first chapter - "Finding Tongues in Trees," the poet is inspired by the words of Shakespeare and the natural world around her. Her poems take on topics ranging from geese and swans to the language of astrophysicists.

Chapter Two, "The Tender Things," finds poems dating from Larsen's depression era roots in a small Wisconsin town. We experience her reflections on the people and events of her life that brought her to now.

Poems "prompted by words and lines styles of other poets" are collected in the third chapter, "Sketching at the Louvre." The poet flexes her poetic muscle, experiencing everything from the gentle sweetness of a fall plum to the process of building a ship of death.

The final chapter, "A Day Like Any Day," takes us on a journey that unabashedly turns the commonplace into the transcendent. At times wistful, at time humorous, we experience brewing a perfect cup of tea, the passage of a cargo ship, and a skirt falling off at a symphony concert.

In Finding Tongues in Trees, Barbara Larsen once again channels her personal history, artistry, and technique into a collection of poems which transcend her experience to achieve universality.