By Chance

Emily Axelrod writes genuinely profound poetry in a deceptively simple manner. Her quiet, lyrical language slyly unveils complex incident and emotion: "from you I learned the beauty/of a flawless downshift/and a smooth start/at the crest of a hill./and from you I learned to dread/the coming of the cocktail hour." In her whimsical mode, she brings the quotidian to joyful life: children "squander[ing] our days like penny candy," When she writes about her beloved sea, you can feel the waves rocking below you. And she observes all of nature with the same exactitude and affection. Emily Axelrod's poems are an abiding treasure.

-Alec Solomita, author of Hard to Be a Hero, (Kelsay Books, 2022), and Do Not Forsake Me, (Finishing Line Press, 2017)



Rooted in family and place-be it California, Maine, or Cambridge, Massachusetts-the poems in Emily Axelrod's collection, By Chance, contemplate time, mortality, and love using direct and personal language. Employing an artist's discerning eye, Axelrod draws us into a world of feeling using artifacts such as the childhood piano she practiced "feet just reaching the pedals, /wishing I loved to play;" or an heirloom recipe card for "roast chicken forever paired/with a stormy departure/from the dinner table." Though loss often looms, these poems consistently deliver pleasure. We feel seen and included in the remembrances of young love, the grappling with loneliness, and the way that, for all of us, "the years...disappear/one snowstorm at a time, and with each blooming of the apple tree."

-Mary Beth Hines, author of Winter at a Summer House, (Kelsay Books, 2021)