Read and discuss a book of poems with others who appreciate poetry and like to take a closer look at form, structure, and craft. Discussions will be lively and interactive, and participants will have a chance to share thoughts and ask questions. Come prepared to read favorite poems, lines, and passages from the book aloud. Members of the Marin Poetry Center select books and lead the discussions. 

December's selection is Life on Earth by Dorianne Laux. The discussion will be led by Sandra Cross.

In her seventh collection, Dorianne Laux once again offers poems that move us, include us, and appreciate us fully as the flawed humans we are. Life on Earth is a book of praise for our planet and ourselves, delivered with Laux’s trademark vitality, frank observation, and earthy wisdom. Laux balances wonder at the night sky and the taste of a ripe peach with recognition of the sharp knife of mortality. The volume includes powerful homages to the poet’s mother and her carpenter’s spirit, reflections on loss and aging, and encounters with the fleeting beauty of the natural world. Transcending life’s inevitable moments of pain and uncertainty, Life on Earth instructs us in our own endless possibilities and the astonishing riches of the world around us. 

SANDRA CROSS lives in Stinson Beach, between the Pacific Ocean and a redwood forested mountain. After retiring from her legal career she has returned to her love of reading and writing poetry and is also busy keeping deer, foxes and skunks out of her garden.