Singing Stones

Melissa Estes has crafted a collection of story poems that explore honest, fundamental moments in her life. Evocative of Mary Oliver, she grounds many of her insights in the natural world and her prose is clean and thoughtful. She is her own writer, though and explores a range of moments. Some are grave.Some are meditative, "Discovering what was lost isn't nearly as satisfying as finding something wild." My husband asks, "What about zebras?" "But they've never been tamed, I tell him. You can't break what refuses to love you. What's never known caught, doesn't know free. Not in the deep way that marks bones". Some are light, "My daughter's spine in a yogic bridge traces the arching replica of dinosaur bones. Her head tips back for better viewing. Our curly poodle paces curlicues searching out droppings of wilder things". Her stories are felt moments shared with us lightly, through the lens of their place in the natural world.