The Fourth River

"Time is palpable in Joan Siegel's book THE FOURTH RIVER; it moves and flows through each poem, taking the reader forward and backward in chronology, imagining an existence in which the speaker's father can be both boy and man simultaneously. This book is a collection of time: anniversaries-first twenty then thirty-and birthdays and units of measure. In "This Birthday" time is both solid and malleable: "You rooted first/then traveled alone/the treacherous journey, /making way for me later." Perhaps the best definition of time can be found in the poet's own words: "Time ends in the gold/throat of lily sipping/a last drought of sun." In Siegel's work, time is a golden atmosphere-tactile, pulsing, and flowing liquid as rivers." -Andrea Spofford, Editor Zone 3 Press "Whatever her subject matter Joan Siegal, like the best of poets, admits us into her passionately contained vision of the world. In THE FOURTH RIVER she explores origins and returns with beautiful simplicity." -Diane Wakoski "The touching poems in Joan Siegel's THE FOURTH RIVER are moments of life and loss in which "even the wind catches fire." Reflecting the fragility of memory and of time itself, they flow with inexorable capacity of the heart's meanders and gravity." -Ronald Spatz, Editor, Alaska Quarterly Review