If the Water

In If the Water, Cathy Cain steers a flotilla of fantasies and meditations that, with her big heart and playful verbal dexterity, become lifeboats of connection as we navigate the strange, amorphous, and often anxious seas of being. 

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"If the Water is not just a great delight, it is a book of delights: a book of play, a book of thought, a book that speaks the truth of love and sadness.Throughout these vivid poems, Cain is powerfully aware of the many seas of being and welcomes the reader on the journey with a rare and generous hand."

-Annie Lighthart, author of Pax



"In a world of watery light, waves and tides, Cain's beautiful poems reflect back to us our own sorrows and joys, leaving us all with a better understanding that we are all 'leaf shimmer and silver turning/a wild multitude of small tremblings/a simmering sea.'"

-Carey Taylor, author of Some Aid to Navigation



"Cain's language pulses with musical rhythms, and each poem is deftly accomplished by intuitive forms. After turning the last page of this haunting, sparkling collection, the breadth-childhood, motherhood, love, self-reflection-and most of all the grace of Cain's poetry abides."

-Lana Hechtman Ayers, author of The Autobiography of Rain