Exculpatory Lilies

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book From the award-winning poet known for her bracing honesty and sharp yet compassionate gaze, here is a new collection of poems that explore life, marriage, addiction, death, and heart-wrenching grief. If grief is the willingness to be claimed by a story bigger than ourselves, Susan Musgrave writes, "in that / tender wavering, I let grief in." "Writing about grief or tragedy is tricky. Hard to meet it at a heart-level without being effusive; hard to meet it at a brain-level without being cold. Hard not to make it about ourselves. Hard to meet it at a visceral level because it can take us out at the knees," wrote author Carrie Mac, responding to the death of Musgrave's partner, Stephen Reid, in 2018. Following this traumatic loss, in September 2021 their daughter, Sophie, died of an accidental overdose after a twenty-year struggle with addiction. But to say this is a collection solely about grief would be to miss the whole nature of Musgrave's voice and sensibility. Wit is one counterpoint; the natural world is another. The poems share a landscape whose creatures, minutely observed, wild and tame-the winged ones most of all-dance attendance on the helplessness of our brief and mystifying human lives. Throughout Exculpatory Lilies, Musgrave's alertness to even the most desolate places makes her personal sorrows astonishingly potent; and her scrutiny of language, and emotions, makes shot silk out of sackcloth and ashes.

Reviews

Praise for Susan Musgrave and Exculpatory Lilies:

The sheer humanity and gift to show our fragile, broken selves is nothing less than prayer, as spoken in Musgraves Exculpatory Lilies. That she brings us to the sacred ground of loss and grief, and then lifts us toward our own humility is a ceremony.A ceremony wherein we must bow down our heads to the fragility of all we know, the darkness and light we all must carry.Judges' Citation, Griffin Poetry Prize

Musgraves poetry is rooted in conversational phrases and natural observation interpolated with startling metaphors drawn from nature and everyday living. [Exculpatory Lilies] alights on many truthful moments.EVENT magazine

Praise for Susan Musgrave and Origami Dove:

"Enough tragedy to break your goddamn heart. But also enough craft to parse it for her readers. These poems might be bitter pills but they're coated with artisanal chocolate and gold leaf."Winnipeg Free Press

"Musgrave at her funniest. She hasnt lost her edge; in fact, shes been sharpening it." Globe and Mail

"Musgrave writes short, pristine poems, with the elegance of fresh tracks on snow. Her poems stark lines are freighted with wisdom deep enough that Ive yet to scrape the bottom." Dalhousie Review

"Through the collections quiet, mindful acceptance of sorrow, Musgrave has managed to suck the pain out of it. Sorrow simply becomes another way to experience beauty." Pacific Rim Review of Books

Author Bio

SUSAN MUSGRAVE is the author of nineteen books of poetry, numerous works of fiction and non-fiction, and several books for children. She has been the recipient of multiple awards, including the Matt Cohen Award, the BC Book Awards, and Taste Canada Awards. She lives in Haida Gwaii where she is the proprietor of Copper Beech House.