Shortlisted for the 1994 Pat Lowther Award

“I believe in the common magic/ of forests and household gods” writes Neile Graham in “Spells for Clear Vision,” the title poem of this volume. And it is a common magic which she works in this poetry of delicate attentions. Graham writes about trying to see clearly, about trying to articulate ways of living in a modern, often blinding world. Meditative, individual and ever-open to the intricate and shifting world around her, Graham’s is a pensive and a thoughtful eye. Her poetry thinks through and with sight; it turns on a perceptiveness which is at once sensual and quietly, accessibly, intelletual. How Graham sees her world will alter how we see ours.