The Two Hearts Inside Us by Jill R. Burkey

“Vulnerable. Musical. Intimate. Courageous. With astonishing tenderness and a mother’s heart, Jill Burkey explores the regions between wonder and wisdom, between loss and devotion, between what can be held and what resists our embrace. “The Two Hearts Inside Us” is a testament to the spaciousness and richness that are possible when we dare to greatly love. ”

“Jill’s poems are gorgeous and unique and full of flashes of insight. Not only do they entertain, they also help me make sense of the world we’re living in. ”

“This superb first book asks questions of seedlings and sandstone, canyons and coal, fiercely and gently unearthing patterns only a “summer of children,” for example, squatting over an insect, can show us. Inside the “slick stillness” of boulders, and a Buddhist bracelet, Jill Burkey divines the answer to so many human questions, seeing ‘a ring of stars/reminding me that pain/isn’t suffering if you accept it.’ ”

“These are momentous times easy to lose ourselves in. Jill Burkey’s new book from Lithic Press roots us in getting lost in ourselves. The lilt of our little lives. Help us recognize those two halves of the heart like twins chasing each other across the green, ‘pausing every now and then to paw the ground.’ ”