Intermittent Sacraments, Paperback

A sacrament is the visible sign of inward grace. In Intermittent Sacraments, Mary Hills Kuck presents poems that lead us to recognize these signs in the objects and events of every day: bread, raspberries, plum tree blossoms, a train ride, a cell phone that inspires "glory, glory, glory." Intermittent suggests that sacraments are not always visible. Several poems express the wish for a sign that does not come: in an exorcism at a distant seminary, in the deaths of the author's sister and her parents. Together, the poems suggest that the expectation of grace enhances and makes rich our mundane experiences.

Mary Hills Kuck was born and raised in the American Midwest, and spent most of her adult life on the East Coast until she moved to Jamaica, West Indies, to teach English. She lived there with her family for 23 years. If you listen carefully, you will hear echoes of those years in her poetry, especially in "The Luck of Pigs," yet she remains rooted in Illinois and Missouri. The unreliable spring in "Deception," the moonlight in "A Poem," the succulent raspberries in "Advice from a Housewife" betray her Midwestern roots that still define her work.