Bloodroot

“ . . . Jackie Bartley gives us radiant and spiritually informed poems; affidavits hammered out of the difficult lineage of Elizabeth Bishop and Thomas Merton. Bloodroot is a masterful collection: rangy and focused, contemporary, yet sure in its knowledge of the American tradition. This is a stunning and important debut.” – Greg Rappleye

“In these poems made with the reverence of a monastic and the precision of a lab technician, Jackie Bartley works in several languages: religious, scientific, the language that keeps us connected to the natural world, and the complex language spoken between parent and child. These languages never claim a hierarchy; they merge, taking us beyond language to the ineffable.” – Jack Ridl

“Jackie Bartley produces poems full of wry perception and simple verbal brilliance. Writing about what’s left after the betrayals of the heart, of memory, of the body, Bartley’s book is a smart uneasy celebration.“ – Heather Sellers

“In Bloodroot, Jackie Bartley explores the subtle marriage between spirit and imagination. Restless yet patient, inquisitive yet accepting, these poems take a long careful look at the past and the ways it can survive in us. Cumulatively, they reveal a stubborn optimism and a deep reverence for human life.” – Chase Twitchell