Canticle for Remnant Days - by Jane C Miller (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

What a pleasure, spending time with the soulful poems in Jane C. Miller's debut collection, Canticle for Remnant Days. Miller's work is haunted by time, by the poet's awareness of her own mortality, and by the ache she feels when contemplating the vulnerability of those she loves-and yet, far from being pessimistic, these skillfully crafted poems are full of hope and tenderness. Like a scientist, Miller takes the measure of what she sees. Like an alchemist, she distills. And like an ecstatic, she winds it all together into a rich song of praise.

-James Arthur, author of The Suicide's Son

Review Quotes

What a pleasure, spending time with the soulful poems in Jane C. Miller's debut collection, Canticle for Remnant Days. Miller's work is haunted by time, by the poet's awareness of her own mortality, and by the ache she feels when contemplating the vulnerability of those she loves-and yet, far from being pessimistic, these skillfully crafted poems are full of hope and tenderness. Like a scientist, Miller takes the measure of what she sees. Like an alchemist, she distills. And like an ecstatic, she winds it all together into a rich song of praise.

-James Arthur, author of The Suicide's Son

In Canticle for Remnant Days, Jane C. Miller explores the complexities and difficulties of "capturing life before the after" of loving and letting go. "Why is joy so brief, ' Miller asks, understanding as she does that "joys are often the shadows cast by sorrows." In a world where "so many wishes go unmet," Miller reminds us to "walk in the world" in ways that "make diamonds of rivets." Despite the "handwringing of hours" we often feel, these poems still find a way to express the longings of our hearts as signs of hope.

- Michael S. Glaser, Maryland Poet Laureate, 2005-2009

"So many deer die in poems," Jane C. Miller begins her long-awaited first collection, "I am due to hit one." The charm in Miller's poetry is her hard wit, and her appetite for the mess of life. In poem after poem, she invites trouble to pose for a close-up, so we can gawk and take heart. This book is full of hits.

-Diana Goetsch

"The remnant day walks with you." With masterful attention and lyric finesse, Jane C. Miller steers us into the gambles of love, the lives we don't sign up for, our what-ifs, the overlooks that save us. She probes the limits of memory and language with tenderness, precision, and humor. These poems hit where it hurts, while lifting that hurt and the ambushes of life, the awe in our curveball world, into song.

-Tara Skurtu