Loosestrife for Porcupines

D M Gordon's poetry collection, Nightly, At the Institute of thePossible, was a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award while

her story, "The Work of Hunters Is Another Thing," won a first prize from Glimmer Train. She's a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow in fiction, and two-time finalist in poetry. As the editor at Hedgerow Books, she midwifed eleven books of poetry into being, several of which were short-listed for national awards. Short works in multiple genres have been published everywhere from The Cincinnati Review to Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet and Poetry Daily. She lives in Western Massachusetts, at the edge of a long field ringed by woods.

Find out more at www.dmgordon.com

Finalist, 2025 Blue Light Book Award

"Seldom do we have the privilege of seeing through eyes so open, so discerning, so disconcerting. Refusing the illusions with which we too easily screen reality, these are poems whose mastery of craft enables their clarity of vision, whose cadenced language and wit enlivens poems that seem written for our threatened time.How I admire their candor, the cool stamina of these poems, along with their warm affection, their knowledge of pasture and parlor, the full keyboard: This is all, nature and art."

-Eleanor Wilner, Before Our Eyes: New and Selected Poems,

1975-2017

"Loosestrife for Porcupines is a beautifully crafted reflection of the intimacies of the natural world. Here, fiddler crabs raise their machine-gun claws like tiny gangsters. Named and nameless winds begin to stir. Balanced against these appreciations comes listable sorrows, from the swollen oceans and the albino crows of Chernobyl to stars disappearing over the shifting bones of an aging planet. Inevitably, Gordon turns to us and asks, without judgement or malice, have we been wise? Craving joy, keenly insightful as they are compassionate, these stunning poems- both individually and collectively-are a timely and necessary gift."

-Mary A Koncel, The Last Blonde