Author Description

This is a slender volume comprising 100 poems, each a mere 5 lines totaling fewer than 31 syllables. They are beautifully crafted, deceptively simple, and evoke wonder in their ability to distil volumes into a few well-chosen words. The subject of this collection is no less than life, love, death, and art. The poems are brief but these are not minced words. The poet examines life with an unapologetic ruthlessness, often crossing boundaries as she draws on her wide range of experience. The tone is worldly, at times otherworldly, playful, detached, never judgmental. She targets the quirky anomalies of human behavior as she has encountered it. Her aim is true. The book’s title, holding hands with a stranger, is derived from one of the poems, and the dedication sheds light on its various meanings: Who is the stranger with whom we all hold hands? It is our future, our fate, whatever is unknowable that we intuitively grasp and follow. It is the anonymous ticket-holder beside us who spontaneously seeks to share the Ode to Joy, the joy of being alive during a crowning musical moment. It is the poet whose hand you hold as you read this collection. Margaret Van Every is widely published in poetry journals and has two other books of poetry with Librophilia Press: A Pillow Stuffed with Diamonds Bilingual/Una almohada rellena de diamantes bilingüe (2011) and Saying Her Name (2013).