5Winner, 2023 Blue Light Book Award

"Anna Kodama is a gifted poet whose gaze penetrates Life to its bones. With masterful crafting of language, she gives shape to the Mystery, often in the voice of the shaman or wise woman. To read Anna's work is like being in a gentle rain of blessing."

- Jennifer Read Hawthorne, coauthor of

Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul and

author of Life As a Prayer: Poems

"In vivid, intimate language Anna Kodama speaks directly to the heart in poems that convey the stratigraphy of a life layered with joy, wonder, and bereavement. This excellent and deeply personal collection weaves aspects of the natural world, memory, place, and time to evoke a sense of love and loss."

- Kate Brandes, author of

The Promise of Pierson's Orchard

"According to the Sufi Proverb, "If words come from the heart, they will enter the heart. If they come from the tongue, they will not pass beyond the ears." Anna Kodama's wise words come directly from her generous heart. Whether Anna is telling a story or sharing a lyric moment, her poems move us in a way that we will not soon forget. Her skillful use of vivid details allows us to fully enter her world. Anna is both a poet and a painter and her exquisite use of color and attention to nature's smallest details, as well as her sensitivity to the largest issues of life and death, bring her poetry alive in the most moving way."

- Angie Minkin, author of Balm for the Living

About the Author

Anna Kodama writes and paints in eastern Pennsylvania, a few miles from the Delaware River. She has raised children, chickens, and vegetables, and taught adult and family literacy. As "Anna Carr," she authored several books about organic gardening. She is a coauthor of Dreams and Blessings: Six Visionary Poets, also published by Blue Light Press.