Yellow Foxes Fall From the Sky

Praise for Yellow Foxes Fall from the Sky: Emily Black wondrously fulfills the essential role of the poet as a seer who seeks to evoke the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary things of our everyday lives: “…the smell of sand baking in summer,” “…the dreamy water of the shallows,” “the spatula like a baton,” “the intimacy of soapy smells and misty mirrors,” “…sunlight slipped through a crack / in the roof, making a spotlight for dancing.” Indeed, these are the things that make a life, a life with all its quiet glory and delicate strength. As she so brilliantly notes: “Living artwork is what we create day by day: / our movements, our habits, etch themselves / into the substance of our existence.” —Richard Blanco, 2013 Presidential Inaugural Poet, author of Homeland of My Body Journey alongside poet Emily Black as she guides the reader through her life, sharing events that shaped her, moments both startling and intimate. Those-learned-the-hard-way lessons about husbands and children and beloved family populate these poems. Such a rich life the poet draws from, and how deftly she constructs her past into poems. Her first husband’s brutality is juxtaposed with the worshipful act of watching her grandfather shave. Memory comes alive in Black’s hands, and I’m struck by the tenderness of how she remembers. These fine poems, so authentic and hard-won, moved me. The “thick, creamy yellow light,” the through-line of this collection, shines as brightly as the wild yellow irises heralding winter’s end. “Untethered, I swim through yellow air, /creamy air, like lemon custard /made of sunlight.” —Alexis Rhone Fancher, author of Brazen, Triggered, & The Dead Kid Poems One of the reasons I read poetry is to accompany the poet in new experiences that feel familiar to me and to travel to distant places that feel like coming home. And I don’t show up to read poetry in work clothes. Frankly, I’m unwilling to lift and move a poem like a heavy piece of furniture. Rather, what I want to be moved is me. I want to feel something. I want to taste the bittersweetness of life in poetry, because real life is both sweet and savory. The poetry in this volume checks all my boxes. Emily Black’s collection of exquisite and accessible poems reminds me why I keep coming back to poetry again and again—to rediscover beauty and delight once more in the wonders of being human. — Ramon Presson, author of Voice Lessons Yellow Foxes Fall from the Sky is a delightful book of memories from childhood, world travels, shades of love, and gifts of aging. Emily Black has generously shared with us her life through poetry and has provided common ground for us, too, to remember. — Sandra Rollins, author of Trail of Red Flowers