A Slender Grace

Wisconsin Bookwatch, Dec, 2004

A Slender Grace

Rod Jellema

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

255 Jefferson Avenue, S.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49503

0802827829 $18.00 1-800-253-7521 www.eerdmans.com

A Slender Grace collects 67 poems, almost all of them new, the first such poetry anthology published by author and poet Rod Jellema in almost twenty years. Using free verse to paint winding pictures of vagrancies of daily life, and the struggle to reach for a glimmer of hope when surrounded by darkness, A Slender Grace is emotional, captivating, deftly penned, and speaks directly to the heart in a body of inspiring work urging the reader to never surrender to despair. Lullaby at Lake Michigan: Hush now. / Night's / what we missed all day. / The sun before she lit out / over the lake / over the unseen edge of the world / (Wisconsin) // pastured out / to her dark / empty fields and fields / her herds and herds / of little lights / that whisper to you // as they gaze / up there / (listen) / far and far.