Page last updated: March 25, 2022
All pages copyright © 2022 by Pinyon Publishing
PRODIGAL
Poems by Francine Marie Tolf
“We have lost our ability to name,” Francine Marie Tolf writes:
“We say antelope, owl,
as if these words had power.
As if the names of animals hadn’t long fled
back into animals.”
Thus, Tolf lays out the major themes of her second collection of poems, Prodigal: nature, animals, and language—plus a fourth: discoveries that occur when one of these intricate living strands intersects with another.
Tolf doesn’t shy from the savagery humans inflict on the earth and other animals, but instead encourages us to reflect and understand if we can. “In This Rain” and “A Good Thing” are brief but chilling examples. Yet this collection of finely tuned poems balances sorrow and outrage with deep joy and delight. Multilayered and intimate, Prodigal offers hope, derived not from cheaply won sentiment but from an intensely personal conviction welling from an imperfect and compassionate heart:
“At its center,
the circle inverts:
the food chain collapses,
the lion eats straw.
Yet tears are not reversed,
but are wiped away.
So necessary to me, that God
who lets tears fall.
Who touches a quail’s grief
with his own hand.”
FRANCINE MARIE TOLF is the author of Rain, Lilies, Luck, her first full-length collection of poetry, and Joliet Girl, a memoir. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals, including Water-Stone, Rattle, Spoon River, Poetry East, and Southern Humanities Review. She has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board; Barbara Deming Memorial/Money for Women; the Loft Literary Center; and the Elizabeth George Foundation. She holds an MA from Kansas State University and an MFA from the University of Minnesota.
Spill Some New Brightness (2022)
Poems with compassion for animals, strength from nature, and a community of gratitude to help heal and experience a whole life.
Page last updated: March 25, 2022
All pages copyright © 2022 by Pinyon Publishing