balancing act

Sydney Leclerc's Balancing Act is about how we feel both joy and anxiety at the same time. These are plain-speaking poems of family, grief, growing up, relationships, change, and the whole darn thing. The honesty and purity of these poems touch us deeply in their vulnerability. Leclerc's images are bittersweet childhood memories: "I grew up in the front seat of Dad's pickup truck, /fell asleep as he plowed." And writing about her mother: "Moon to the ocean, /always in motion." There are also haunting and beautiful images: "It's a nightmare and you're a statue" and "The moon, the stars, the sea. /We are my favorite trilogy." But more than anything, it is a book about the wonder that is love, as Leclerc says: "To love until your heart implodes."-Dan Sklar, author of Flying Cats (actually swooping)