The Weight of a Leaf

No other living poet extends the work of Sam Hamill like Katie Sarah Zale. The depth of feeling (often elegiac) and the fierce commitment to justice (gender, environmental and societal). There aren't enough poems like this in the world.-Paul E Nelson, A Time Before Slaughter, Founder: Cascadia Poetics Lab, Literary Executor for Sam Hamill "What is there to do about all the violence?" asks Zale in her opening poem "Bread," setting the tone of this weighty collection. But there is lightness too, the weight of a leaf falling in the face of grief. It is the hopeful lightness that helps us to cope with all the darkness ... it is especially the light touch of the poet's lyrical precision that makes these poems so memorable. Describing the last hanging in Michigan, Zale writes, "I am the twisted neck and rise and fall of final breaths," but I am also "the ink that changes the law" ... "a voice protesting" and "a flower unfolding."-Gene Twaronite, The Museum of Unwearable Shoes and Shopping Cart Dreams Her poems reach into the violence of our times and shine a tender spotlight on nature, paving the way for us to find resilience by seeking truth.-Sheila Bender, Since Then: Poems and Short ProseA resonance of peril energizes these poems ... The Weight of a Leaf is the weight of what is written to testify and celebrate ... the struggle to affirm that all lives matter.-Carolyne Wright, Pablo Neruda and Blue Lynx Prizes, American Book Award, Pushcart PrizeAn unflinching look at the world without judgment: what we notice, what we pass by, what we hear ... what we wonder about-"sunflowers / lying dead in Ukraine." Katie writes with beautiful imagery and music and invites us to gather our own words. In "September 24, 1830: The Last Hanging in Michigan," each line begins with "I am." If we speak up and say what kind of person we are, we answer the question. This is a brave book.-Eleanor Kedney, Between the Earth and Sky