“Mary Makofske’s big-heartedness is matched only by the capaciousness of her imagination – and surely the two are twinned – her ability to imagine her way into the experiences and perceptions of so many and such different others – a suicide bomber, an enslaved woman, a night guard at a concentration camp among them – as vividly as she renders her own daily and deeply personal experiences. If there are no angels, there are at least poets like Makofske, who bear witness, empathize, illumine, show us how it is to be alive and fully human in times like ours.”
~~Cecilia Woloch, author of Tsigan: The Gypsy Poem and Carpathia
“Makofske traces a lineage of damage and repair through her family, her nation, the natural world, and ‘this most recent dread disease,’ asking herself and the reader how to live the single life you have when ‘no one has found the antidote to history.’”
~~J. C. Todd, Beyond Repair
“These poems constitute evidence that the world will endure, and maybe even that loss and separation are a myth: ‘the name/ of the tree that straddles/ a border may change from one/ language to another, but its roots/ are anchored in the same earth.’ Makofske is both wise and a master of the language, a delight to read as always.”
~~Stephen Cramer, author of Bone Music, winner of the Louise Bogan Award and Shiva’s Drum, winner of the National Poetry Series