The Crone at the Casino

Janet McCann uses her gift of lyrical language to share her visions and her many loves-of people, great literature, the taste of fine food, art, cats-all the while reminding us of mutability, of time-wrought change, of the inevitability of growing old. All stories progress, she reminds us, however much we might want to end them with happily ever after. McCann invites us to look at "Old Cinderella" who advises her granddaughter to "marry a carpenter" while her own arthritic fingers fasten the diamond tiara (That glass slipper in a case, backlit) Prince long gone in a drunken duel Over someone's daughter Never wanted another, took up sewing But now can't make the tiny stitches . . . There is also renewal and joy in the movement of time that McCann celebrates in well-wrought lines leading the reader to share epiphanies, as when the grandmother guides grandson to the telescope, shows him how to use it. He catches his breath at the curve, the long unscrolling of heaven. This is a book you will return to often to experience and to ponder its poetic and solemn beauty.