Madlynn Haber examines her life with unflinching honesty and clarity. Her language is the language of everyday, used with such artistry, imbued with such
warmth, welcome, and intimacy. As you read, you might well imagine yourself in the company of a wise and compassionate friend, whose experiences
illuminate your own challenges and predicaments, be it regret over an impassioned outburst, grief for a parent ravaged by age, or the risks of allowing oneself to be loved.

Her work also celebrates the richness and power of language and the process of writing itself. Her practice is to write her way "through to the back part of the brain" to discover the memories and treasures that are buried there. Sorrow, loss, and grief are not banished or dismissed. The choice is always to turn the hurt into prayers and poems, to "highlight the joy that balances the dread." These are poems you will cherish and return to again and again. Light shines through them, along with enormous generosity of spirit.

-Peggy Reber
Author, travel by night

This is a book about truths grounded in an unapologetic series of questions that appear through encounters, relationships, vocations, and dedicated practices. We readers are warmly welcomed into the intricacies of daily life, the lists of responsibilities and the artifacts that embody them. The poems contain a listener, an advocate, an activist, a consoler, and ultimately a questing pilgrim who opens more and more to understanding that the self is created by the life that has been given. Everyday objects are made sacred by a reverence for ordinary occurrences. The poems bring us to see a life cherished because the deepest unknowns are never avoided.

We readers come to recognize that a decision is an experiment, and the aftermath can be as clear as a key
on a plate. Here are poems that carry us with the steady rhythm of footsteps, and here are poems that swing us in arcs of wonder. How is it possible to stay grounded when the spirit leaps with self-determined faith? Whether it's the idea of cleaning to stay alive or a voice that tells us they "appreciate the faltering and the resiliencies" in the people they live with, work with, or care for, these poems consistently reinvent the essential pondering of a life's purpose. The title, "I Lived a Life Once That Mattered" says it best. If that's not an answer, I'm not sure what is.

-Maureen Buchanan Jones
Author, blessed are the menial chores
and Maud & Addie