To the Left of the Sun

By turns irreverent, playful, and serious, Haltmaier's poems explore the phenomena of daily life with a deft clarity that transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. Brimming with nuance and surprise, To the Left of the Sun touches on the themes ofsolitude and union, love and letting go, and the redemptive power of nature. Haltmaier's unflinching eye lays bare the hidden miracles in choosing a head of cabbage at the farmer's market, taking a morning walk, or watching her mother's decline into dementia. The everyday and the heartrending undergo a light-infusing alchemy in her hands-as the poet invokes what she calls the "protective buoyancy of words." At its heart, To the Left of the Sun is a portal to a world where wonder, humor, and beauty can be found in even the most unlikely places. It is in this "place of quiet/where the earth is padded with pine needles/and smells of sap and new flowers" that disappointments and dreams, joy and struggle, love and grief, offer their unexpected gifts with a "a flush of recognition that spreads faster than a single malt."