Land's End

"This comprehensive volume . . . demonstrates a remarkable mastery of poetic technique [with] poems as poignant as they are accomplished in their craft." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

In Land's End, Gail Mazur writes with the kind of lyric authority, emotional range, and broad intellectual and social scope that her readers have come to expect. Beautifully crafted elegies meet with reflections on her own life, her family, and artists who have come and gone. In the title poem, she leads readers through a garden, where new and old growth twists together in an "almanac of inheritances" that conjures the rich memory of poets who have passed on. In this space of remembrance, Mazur also charges us with the responsibility of nurturing art and artists of the future, especially in the face of the disheartening absurdities of contemporary politics.


Through tidal creeks and the weightless scenes of ukiyo-e woodcuts, in artists' studios and along the frozen Charles River, Mazur connects passionately with the world around her. Carrying with her the undeniable presence of loss and of time past, she engages deeply with the present, her historic memory informing a deep concern for contemporary life.