When the World Walks Toward You

I bow down to the astonishing, utterly powerful poems of Myra Shapiro. Having always loved her voice, and now encountering it further along the path, is a gift beyond measure. Life and beauty, death and its mysterious music-like a perpetual humming beneath all our exacting movements-the diminishment and death of her very beloved partner-the exquisite heartbreaking dailiness of days-and dreams for the women of our own histories as well as the far-off, equally deserving women of Gaza-why not? O world askew! Shapiro sings. She’s a master.

-Naomi Shihab Nye, Young People’s Poet Laureate, Poetry Foundation

Myra Shapiro’s fourth book begins with the death of dancer Martha Graham. But if you think this is a book about death you are missing the point not only about this first poem, but about Myra’s attitude toward death. The subject of this book is life and how death itself is about how we live it. From Myra’s birth, when she replaced her sister who died as a child, through and after her husband’s death, Myra Shapiro calls on and brings to mind the blessings that make life what it is. She savors life down to the last teaspoon.

-Fran Quinn, Poet, Editor, and Teacher