World of Made and Unmade

"How will you spend/ your courage, how// will you spend your life?" Mead (Money Money Money|Water Water Water|Water Water Water) addresses that question repeatedly as she considers the long season of her mother's dying. In untitled poems connected like the strands of a "deep blue yarn," Mead propels readers forward, using plain language that's elegant in its simplicity yet compelling and heartbreaking. Even as she confronts grief and loss, the poet highlights the overriding theme of courage. "Saying you want to die/ is one thing …/ but dying is quite another," she proclaims, further suggesting that love carries us through the process of death as we do what we must to ease the transition for loved ones, and live our lives in honor of them. With its ever-changing cycles of birth and rebirth, nature shows us that life continues, and it indeed provides comfort; perhaps for Mead, tending the vineyards (begun by her grandfather) and her mother's pecan trees is a way of honoring her mother. In the end, finally, it is winter: "The trees … are losing/ their leaves. The pecans// pop out of their casings—/ready for their winter harvest."