Autumn Clears

There is a sense of wariness or caution that permeates the poems in Jane Edna Mohler's new collection, Autumn Clears. Mohler's investigative eye is always on the lookout for connections; she creates a remarkable balance between wonder and hidden risks, as she explores relationships with loved ones, concerns with the present moment, and the lessons and solace inherent in the natural world. Her poems carry weight, the shadow presence of lives always with us.

-Mark Danowsky, Editor-in-Chief, ONE ART: a journal of poetry

In Autumn Clears, Jane Edna Mohler's poems grow out of a rich compost of the many, scattered, ordinary/extraordinary artifacts of living and dying: spoons and raccoons; turkey buzzards, herons, and sons living too far away; iPhones and thrift-store ties; frozen lakes, houses, and cemeteries. As she aptly writes in her poem "Longevity," "My garden is pell-mell, hotfoot, feverish, / sticky, stinking. It's all about the party." It sure is. With sharp-eyed, generous Mohler as your host, this is a garden party well-worth attending.

-David Ebenbach, author, What's Left to Us by Evening and Some Unimaginable Animal

"Most hearts go a lifetime...keeping love-struck and fear-smacked / secrets. But mine's been opened..." In Autumn Clears, the poems speak to the complexities of love in which forgiveness runs parallel with nurturing. Mohler brings an honest yearning for what's been lost and a peaceful resolve to the present. "Our kind is always crashing in the calm..." she writes knowingly. Yet with equal care, there is a recognition that the desire to define our own life is well within our reach if we are brave enough to let go of what no longer serves. There is such beauty to her writing. She maintains a keen eye and has a stellar command of imagery, no matter the season, "...waves of dry corn tassels...thick as sable brushes." and fields "...shabby with November." "I've softened," she writes. The poems in this outstanding collection remind us that once a past is cleared, the present and future have room to flourish.

-Judith Lagana, author, Make Space and Edge of Highway