Echoes in the Sagebrush

Echoes in the Sagebrush, Betty Naegele Gundred's second chapbook, is a relatable, reflective human journey. Through grouping the poems Reflections, Resonance and Transformations, we are led to the final metaphorical opening of the window and the glints of sunlight we need to exist. "Empty chair / I do not know how to cook / for one" resonates sharply as an epitaph to loss. Gundred writes, "What the girls don't see / are the teenagers / alive within the aging bodies . . . No one outgrows their past / the girls will learn . . . in time." You feel they really will.

--Annie Elliott, poet, Exile



Betty Naegele Gundred's evocative poetry deals with the triumphs and losses we have all experienced. In "Untethered," we resonate with Gundred's fear as she watches her daughter's first ride down the sliding board, ". . . like a skydiver / arms outstretched . . .with no parachute / but a child's trust." We sense her grief in "The Weight of Loss": ". . . I feel the empty bed/and remember." Her eloquent references to nature's world reflect our own human nature. Like the ancient sagebrush in "Resounding Sagas" that has been "witness to the wind of ages," Gundred's poems echo "life's truths." I heartily recommend this book of poems, for you will want to read it again and again.

--Donna Aycock Meares, poet, Gift Wrapped



For those who think poetry is disconnected from daily life, step into the pages of Echoes in the Sagebrush. You will be impressed with poems such as "The Thistle" and "Echoes," which draw readers in and make them wonder how this poet captured some of their own painful or poignant experiences. Listen to ". . . as I crunch / dried leaves . . ." in "Colors of Change" and savor the sound of ". . . I linger with the longing, the losing, the lost . . ." for its flawless alliteration in "Ambushed." Gundred's poems speak to the wonders of the world in--and all around--us.

-Dori Perrucci, author of Searching for Concezio