The One Who Swears You Can't Start Over is both an elegiac record of losses and a testimony to our collective human determination to begin again.
Though the book is centered around family and losses (loss of a mother to Alzheimer's, loss of a child, loss of a friend to suicide), it also includes a number of coming-of-age poems; poems on poetry, including the deadpan-funny 'Why I Lied My Way Through Childhood'; persona poems written in voices unique as Peter the Apostle and Snow White; several sonnets, a sestina and other pieces about the author's children; and poems of deep praise, deep joy, such as 'Dinner at the Frost Place' and 'Homage to the Common'.
"Ethna McKiernan stands out among the ranks of poets for her ability to match language to subject, sound to sense. When this combination comes into play, readers come away refreshed and drawn deeper into life."
The Bloomsbury Review
Ethna McKiernan is a Minnesota author with strong Irish connections, including a year's stay in Dublin as a child and over 50 trips back since. Her first book, Caravan, was co-published by Dedalus and Midwest Villages & Voices in 1989, the same year she was awarded a State Arts Boad Fellowship in literature. Her most recent work has appeared in The New Hibernia Review, Poetry Ireland, and 33 Minnesota Poets. She is currently an MFA candidate at Warren Wilson College.
Though the book is centered around family and losses (loss of a mother to Alzheimer's, loss of a child, loss of a friend to suicide), it also includes a number of coming-of-age poems; poems on poetry, including the deadpan-funny 'Why I Lied My Way Through Childhood'; persona poems written in voices unique as Peter the Apostle and Snow White; several sonnets, a sestina and other pieces about the author's children; and poems of deep praise, deep joy, such as 'Dinner at the Frost Place' and 'Homage to the Common'.
"Ethna McKiernan stands out among the ranks of poets for her ability to match language to subject, sound to sense. When this combination comes into play, readers come away refreshed and drawn deeper into life."
The Bloomsbury Review
Ethna McKiernan is a Minnesota author with strong Irish connections, including a year's stay in Dublin as a child and over 50 trips back since. Her first book, Caravan, was co-published by Dedalus and Midwest Villages & Voices in 1989, the same year she was awarded a State Arts Boad Fellowship in literature. Her most recent work has appeared in The New Hibernia Review, Poetry Ireland, and 33 Minnesota Poets. She is currently an MFA candidate at Warren Wilson College.