Places, everyone: poems

The title of Laurie Allmann's new poetry collection, Places, everyone, embodies its central premise: that every place in nature is an expression of a complex and beautiful set of relationships built over time. It also offers of hint of the wry and engaging tone that often surfaces in her free verse as she relates scenes from the daily lives of individual creatures—Blanding's turtles, crayfish, long-eared owls—and their intimate connections with the landscapes they call home. These are poems about swans and evolution, silent movies and Tuvan throat-singers, frogs, dogs, the act of poetry writing itself. The patience and insight with which she explores the natural world is accompanied by an awareness of the role she herself plays in its unfolding story. She reckons with grief and accountability for the undeniable changes we have all brought to bear. But more than anything, this collection revels in the wild creatures and wild places from which we take so much joy, and to which we are obliged in equal measure.