BookView Review

Those familiar with contemporary nature-driven, introspective poetry will recognize the sensibility at work in Steele’s latest, a collection of poems organized into seven thematic sections that move fluidly between external landscapes and interior reflection. Each section gathers short, free-verse poems whose lines expand and contract with little regard for formal symmetry; stanza breaks appear and dissolve, giving the work an organic, almost wind-shaped structure. The effect is loose but intentional, mirroring the unpredictability of both memory and emotion.

Stelle’s primary subject remains the natural world and its quiet correspondence with human experience. Her attention to detail is often precise and affecting. In “Windstorm,” she writes of “spindly reeds / try[ing] to stand up to the battering winds,” while in “The Splendor of Fall,” squirrels move with “cheeks…bulging with a trove of nuts,” grounding the poems in tactile, observed reality. These moments reflect a poet deeply attuned to her environment. Brief exchanges, such as the understated “Too small” in “Throw the Seatrout Back,” carry emotional resonance without excess explanation. In the love poems, Steele favors suggestion over declaration. There are instances where the metaphors accumulate to the point of heaviness. Still, Steele’s voice remains sincere and observant throughout. In the end, this is a reflective, quietly immersive work, one that finds meaning in ordinary details. Luminous and reflective.

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