The Beginning of the Fields

It is hard to believe that there are still people with such a command of the nuance and power of our language as Angela Shaw clearly posesses. Her poems are sometimes light, often dark, always electrifying, and reveal a depth of thought, tribulation, emotion, and insight that compels you to read onward. This book is, quite simply, a treasure.

An experienced woman of literature, Angela Shaw makes her poetry debut with "The Beginning of Fields". Valuing verse over simple words, she weaves the letters of her work beautifully giving readers much to appreciate as she uses the medium of poetry to its fullest. A first work that reads like a master, "The Beginning of Fields" is a treat to enjoy. "Barbed Wire": acre on acre/same joke same joke same/prickly mood come dusk prickly mood come down/night provides/a moment/of opening animal/tearings/then mendings/soft across the sweet fields soft.

I have been reading Angela Shaw's poetry for many years, yet this collection took my breath away with its precision, its versatility of style, its deep, seductive music. The imagery is as lush and wild as the vines and flowers she describes, the syntax as densely textured yet delicate as lace, with unexpected turns and piercing revelations. The moods in these poems are palpable: You can smell the heat, the fields, the perfume, the nightshade. These poems speak with a profound, quiet urgency of the rituals of being -- a daughter, a woman, a wife, a mother, abandoned, widowed -- rituals of our forever negotiating a space in which to become. "The Beginning of the Fields" is a truly stunning collection.