Böcker av Rennie McQuilkin

As its title suggests, Rennie McQuilkin's newest poetry collection, Transformings, focuses on a variety of transformations that occur in both personal and public life. The poems depict the poet's early and later years, in particular the tragic death of his wife, afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease, and his life in a retirement community. The worlds of nature and personal relationship are central to the book. In its second section, Transformings presents poems concerning the recent war in the Holy Land, searching for glimmers of hope in a dire situation, suggesting that peace is the only answer, and ending with the score for a musical rendering of the book's final poem, "Hymn for Peace." Always, the poems avoid obscurity and welcome the reader to engage in poetic conversation, looking for hope in even the most desperate moments and finding much joy in life. The poet writes with a deft touch, striving for simplicity and allowing an abundance of humor into his meditations.

About The Prevalence of Mystery, Rennie McQuilkin's late-life poetry collection, the author writes this: "I present these poems as a sort of postscript remembering the long year following the departure of my dear wife, Sarah. I trust they reflect my enduring love for her; faith in the value of holding fast; admiration of the natural world; and profound respect for those who have shown me the way. Behind it all is the prevalence of mystery."

While not shirking from the worst the modern world throws against us with its violence, its wars, and its racism, these poems offer a "momentary stay" against the personal, political, and environmental perils that afflict us in these desperate days. Always there is an upbeat, often witty tenor to the book, which suggests that the more we are challenged the more we find it in us to call on resources of love and courage that might have lain low at other times. A number of cultural and spiritual heroes figure in the book. The poems are highly readable and classic in their Quaker-like simplicity. They will make you laugh and cry and cheer for the inspiration they offer.

In this harrowing and endearing collection of poems concerning his wife's dementia, Rennie McQuilkin pulls no punches but describes in stark and graphic terms the havoc that Alzheimer's can wreak in the life of the afflicted person and all those in her immediate and extended family. But he also shows that a deepening of love can grow from what might otherwise seem like total devastation. The gains described here make this an inspiring book from which readers will derive hope and resilience in whatever battles they fight.

In his new book, The Rounding, Rennie McQuilkin faces down the horrors of 2020-2021, seeing them clearly but focusing on ways in which he and other survivors have found ways to ride out the storm. The poet finds salvation in the natural world, the arts, gardening, and care for others. He clings to a precarious religious faith, just as he clings to the cliff of the troubled world, keeping his fingernails in fighting trim.  

A chronological series of poems depicting the life of a cancer patient in the first year of his male breast cancer treatment. Moving, often witty, both reverent and irreverent, the book is a praise song written with courage and good humor. Eamon Grennan has called it "a wonder." He goes on to say, "With undaunted courage, insight and an always ready, irrepressibly generous humor even in the face of mortal illness, these poems are brief, brilliant testaments to the poet's stubborn will to praise, to celebrate the radiant ongoingness of the natural and human worlds that he has taken, it seems, into his care."