Reviews of Shadows Light by
Ann Elizabeth Carson

Toronto Women's Bookstore. Shadows Light, by Ann Elizabeth Carson.
This collection of poetry from Canadian author Ann Elizabeth Carson intersperses her poetry with images of her sculptures, each accentuating the other. Reflecting on loss, family, connections, and the act of writing itself, this book is a companion for writers and readers. Autumn, 2006

Marjorie Muir, Poet's Cove, New Monhegan Press, Maine.
What a pleasure to read your poems. Thank you. "Then and Now" is especially wonderful for what it says about youth and age and how they co-exist in us. "Maine Puffin Watch" is a vivid, closely observed descriptive poem. I hope the island will continue to inspire your beautiful nature poems, as well as the poignant reflections on love and loss. Selections will be published in Poet's Cove as well as in the New Monhegan Press. Autumn, 2005

Margo Little, The Sudbury Star, 18/07/05
Carson's poetry distils her life experiences and gives shape to universal questions as she explores the dualities in human existence. The landscapes and seascapes of Islands - Manitoulin in Ontario and Monhegan in Maine - have served as both inspiration and solace. Ann's poetry is accompanied by photographs of her sculptures that illustrate her central themes of the necessity for a connection to nature, to community and to deeply suppressed feelings of isolation and loss. As the title of the collection implies, the poet is striving for balance. Although she acknowledges the moments when "blackness inks my soul" she always walks towards the light. Readers are left with images of "everyday pleasures" and "the comfortable sounds of the Earth's living."

Bill McLean, The Beach Metro News, 6/9/05
Ann Carson's latest book of poetry is accompanied by beautiful colour photographs of her own sculptures. Her poems range from the simple and direct as in Moment: "It's snowing on me, lightly touched I memorize the flakes, upward into their own world. Chilled galaxy of silence." to longer prose-poem works such as Summer Day or Turn Over, or more intimate portraits of human existence such as the musings about home reflected in Baby Boomers, or the feeling of loss and comfort in What Child Comes Back. Ann Carson also works in charcoal and watercolour and examples of her work in these media will be published in her next book.

Jim Moodie, The Manitoulin Expositor, 27/07/05
Shadows Light, a new collection of earthy yet elegant poems explores themes both dark and uplifting. The nature poems are celebratory, but crisply observed, and sometimes sharp in tone as well. Carson's granddaughter calls them "nature with an edge." Often the language is wonderfully precise and vivid: " A beetle clicks over grass", "the whisper of pens", "the scrape of paper tissues". Elsewhere it is more abstract and mysterious, but equally compelling: "the benison of the night air", "wind whispering across lacey places, carved by loss." The engaging, intelligently crafted poems are complemented by photographs of the author's clay sculptures, which are not only compelling in their own right, but echo and emphasize the themes of the poems: "welcoming the possibility of loss, and of dying and of forgetting/and of being fierce with reality, gives protection. I yearn to give up expectations. Yet, I must remember not to forget to remember."

Shadows Light is available at all Book City locations as well as the smaller bookstores listed here . You can also buy it online from the on-line bookstore, Volumes.