No Ordinary Place

Pamela Porter's poems celebrate a world in waiting for discovery. She opens this new collection with a poem entitled An OfferingO in which she brings to the ceremony poems / for every season - of dreams born, / burning, broken, O and in particular one that begins like a perilous graceO to develop as naked and tender and wanting.O Throughout, one hears and sees images that connect both the poet and reader to other dimensions. Always for Porter, there is the moment tentatively coming into being where the mundane is transformed into something totally unexpected and otherworldly. The image can be one that develops from the natural world as in Branches, Early Spring, O where she sees how the trees' red sap set the sky on fire.O Another poem based in nature is NamingO in which small birds lift into the sky / holding in their beaks / the words we don't need to say.O Throughout, Porter's poems celebrate moments when we experience the beginning of the world again.O