Brick Road Poetry Press

112 pages

$15.95

Over the last few years, the world has faced multiple natural disasters caused by extreme weather and rising temperatures. This most recent summer, the United States suffered severe drought, the worst since 1956. Ann E. Michael’s collection of poems, Water-Rites, is a reminder to pay attention to our environment and how our actions impact it. Beyond that, her lyric poems focus on love, loss, grief, and a questioning of the universe, while also linking the memory of departed loved ones to nature.

Water-Rites is divided into three sections. The first deals with nature and sometimes childhood. The second deals with grief, and the third with redemption. One of the strongest poems in the first section is the book’s title poem, “Water-Rites.” Michael creates a speaker who feels guilty for taking long, hot showers, considering how such an act would be a luxury in other parts of the world.

I take my shower,

lean into water’s hot steam

too many minutes

lathered in steam, guilty skin,

greedy pores

knowing the well empties

and the earth’s in drought.

The poem also address turmoil in the Middle East, often caused by oil, which Michael also links to water, writing, “Oil will get you water/water will buy you oil/Barrels and tanks/tanks and barrels/each has meaning/for water and warfare.” Continue reading →