Litany for Wound and Bloom

Litany: a liturgical prayer with responses; an incantatory recital. Judith Montgomery's Litany for Wound and Bloom reads like prayer or incantation. In lush language with close attention to craft, the poet addresses intense topics ranging from personal loss to public tragedy. Of surgery to overcome infertility, she writes "To bloom... / first she must be wounded." In this collection even yellow jackets are made beautiful with "gold-ringed eyes, lace-membranous wings" as they "dabbled dark feet in cut / peaches." In this beautiful book, poems reverberate like music. Penelope Scambly Schott