May Day

You arrive at my altar with no ideawhat it means to worship--to adore. You haven't even learned it:ecstasy and suffering make the same face.--from "e;The Offering"e;May Day is both a distress call and a celebration of the arrival of spring. In this rich and unusually assured first collection, the poet Gretchen Marquette writes of the losses of a brother gone off to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a great love--losses that have left the world charged with absence and grief. But there is also the wonder of the natural world: the deer at the edge of the forest, the dog reliably coaxing the poet beyond herself and into the city park where by tradition every May Day is pageantry, a festival of surviving the long winter. "e;What does it mean to be in love?"e; one poem asks. "e;As it turns out, / the second best thing that can happen to you / is a broken heart."e;May Day introduces readers to a new poet of depth and power.