A set of recommendations by James Crews, Editor of the Sunday Poem

Matrix by Lauren Groff

I was stunned by this historical novel set in 12th century England which tells the story of Marie de France, exiled to a nunnery of which she eventually becomes abbess. Groff’s prose reads like poetry, and this page-turner is so meticulously researched, one instantly becomes absorbed in the story, transported in space and time to this woman’s life among other cloistered women. When winter hits, I want nothing more than to be lost in the luminous prose of a book like this. Readers may remember Groff as the author of Fates & Furies, a novel that President Obama himself recommended.

Wintering by Katherine May

Like many, I came to this book during the pandemic, and was charmed by May’s blunt honesty and vulnerability, writing of how she’s had to learn to hunker down and care for herself during the inevitable downturns of her life—a practice she calls “wintering.” We’re taken along with May as she searches out a glimpse of the Northern Lights and adopts the practice of dipping in the freezing sea each morning in an effort to shift her mood. Katherine May’s enticing and compassionate voice have made me re-read this gem several times already.

Some Glad Morning by Barbara Crooker

I’ve been a fan of Barbara Crooker’s searingly honest and simply delightful poetry for many years now, and her work is perfect for the practice of wintering. She writes of the real things of life while never shying away from the beauty of the natural world, or from the paintings she reimagines, including the work of Hopper, Renoir, and O’Keeffe. As she writes of winter in her poem, “Bells”: “We inhale spruce, its resinous breath: the hope of spring,/the memory of summer.” Her poems ground me in the actual world, and make me see my surroundings in a brand-new way.

Hush by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

I keep this book of poetry close by my nightstand and desk, and have carried it on several cross-country trips. Each of the comforting poems gathered here is a balm that brings us closer to nature and the loved ones in our lives. As Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer writes in one of my favorites, “As Winter Remembers Itself”: “Sometimes the call/to fall in love with the day is easier to hear/when it’s hardest to imagine how.” In this way, she challenges us to “fall in love with the day,” especially when we find it most trying. You can also follow Trommer as she writes and shares a poem every day at her blog, One Hundred Falling Veils.

Rewilding by January Gill O’Neil

This collection of poetry shows us a woman embracing and reimagining her life after a difficult divorce. Whether writing of the delicious Sundays she now has to herself (“my brownie breakfast, my braless day”) or of being told she resembles Michelle Obama at a New Year’s party, O’Neil’s poems are wide-ranging, open-armed, and often playful. In one of the best poems from the book, “Kettling,” she describes watching vultures coasting overhead: “You can’t understand/in that moment how I yearned to be free,/free of the body and all its fog/untouchable under the whisper of heaven.” Rewilding reminds us of the possibilities of transcendence even in a winter landscape.

North by Brad Kessler

This compassionate and mesmerizing novel takes up the story of three characters whose lives converge at a Benedictine monastery after a snowstorm in Vermont. Told in clear-eyed prose, this book centers on a brave and wise Somali refugee, Sahro Abdi Muse, as she seeks asylum during the Trump years. Though never shying from the difficulties of Sahro’s quest for safety and freedom, as she makes her way through Africa and South America to the Texas border, North remains big-hearted, a glimpse of what our world might be if only we valued kindness and right action, if only as a society we placed the tending of each other above all else.

Bonfire Opera by Danusha Laméris

This aptly-named book of poetry blazes with emotional truth, luscious imagery, and includes Laméris’ widely-shared poem, “Small Kindnesses.” Though the book sometimes dwells on grief—a lost brother, a child taken far too soon—tenderness nevertheless warms each of these pages until you want to revisit these complex, layered poems again and again. When recommending this book to others, I think of a line from “Edible”: “The world is such an unexpected feast.” Laméris finds surprising beauty almost everywhere she looks, in scrub jays, blackberries, earthworms, and in the darkness of her own skin. Each poem in Bonfire Opera serves as an invitation for us to spend these darker days of winter doing the same.

BY JAMES CREWS, EDITOR OF THE SUNDAY POEM

James Crews is the author of four collections of poetry: The Book of What Stays, Telling My Father, Bluebird, and Every Waking Moment. He is also the editor of two anthologies: Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, and have been reprinted in Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry and featured on Tracy K. Smith’s podcast, The Slowdown. James teaches at SUNY-Albany and lives with his husband in Vermont.

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