The Grace of Private Passage

The poems in Karen Mulhallen's new collection The Grace of Private Passage takes us on a global journey from the mountains of Alberta where the elk are birthing to the rainforests and oceans of Australia, and the streets, museums, and countryside of contemporary Scotland. Journeying, we become pilgrims in a world we have helped to shape. Mulhallen's audience has come to expect a disciplined craftsmanship in her work, and these new poems lead us in unexpected ways back to some very ancient poetic forms. The work in this collection reminds us of how much we live in the world, and how much we are formed by history, not only personal history, family history, but the history of our times. The voice and the voices in these poems search and examine our connections with each other, with the physical world and with its inhabitants, and with all these elements of beauty which move us to a state of wonder.