Sweet, Mary Logan. Journey Into Elder Space. Cedar Falls, IA: Audere Books, 1999. Print.
68 pages
Reviewed by Jessica d'Artagnan Love
Mary Logan Sweet is a poet in Iowa. She is one of my favorite poets. Unfortunately, her work is nearly impossible to find. Her books were published by a small press and are no longer in print. The only reason I know she exists is because I stumbled across her books in my library’s section on Iowa writers. Mary Logan Sweet died in 2014.
Journey Into Elder Space explores themes of aging in Iowa. The language rich in pastoral metaphors and, if you’re an Iowa native, something about Sweet’s work captures the essence of an Iowa summer—they heavy humid air and singing cicadas. Her poems in this collection evoke images of the aged farmer, hands wrangled with arthritis gripping a coffee mug at the local diner at 6am.
My favorite poems from this collection include: “To Report a Lost Word,” “Morning Challenge,” “March Light,” “Homesick,” “Harvester,” “Time Out for Leaders,” and “Old Gardener.” Below is the poem, “Old Gardener.”
Old Gardener
Up, about, and masked
at dawn,
the trappings of old
age put on,
my neighbor slowly
moves between
his brittle bones and
paper skin.
A fallow army he reviews:
the drab lapsed shrubbery
spring renews,
the branches downed in
an ice storm,
the wandering vine in
search of warm.
He estimates the
strength of day,
commands the laggard
cold away,
then, stirring leaf mold
with his cane,
gently calls the bulbs
again.
Would I read it again?
Yes.
Recommended for
Those who enjoy
pastoral poetry. Unfortunately, I doubt you will be able to find a copy.
Not Recommended for
Those who don’t enjoy free
verse poetry.
3 stars out of 5
Mary Logan Sweet’s obituary: https://wcfcourier.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/mary-jean-sweet/article_bf7dcce5-c6b1-52f6-9fca-93448a1cbbae.html
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