Poetry book BEFORE THE AFTER

"Read this book straight through!  Images in every poem build on the ones before to grow poem-by-poem increasingly profound.  Lyrical words firing wonderful images - stanza by stanza, poem by poem - dig an entrance into unexpected depth. Sometimes single words dissolved me through a floor I always saw as solid. If you want intellectual poetry, go elsewhere. For lyric poetry to enchant you - stay here - read this book!"
-- John Calkins, author of Dad, Demons, Dames and a Dwarf: My Trip Down Freedom Road with Mancow Muller

"Blending humor, disappointment and wisdom, Mary Anne invites us to share her travels navigating a world altered by the rise of Black Lives Matter and curtailed by COVID-19. Poetic vignettes narrate events cancelled due to the virus, an imaginative letter to humanity from a disappointed Gaia, how life during the time of coronavirus has radically changed. She explores what we have lost and how we transform and adapt."--Dr. Jennifer Lagier, Author of Camille Comes Unglued and Dystopia Playlist.

“Mary Anne Anderson’s poems ignite an imagery of new normal forced upon us by the relentless pandemic as it permeates our lives, unmasking issues of unequal justice, police brutality and systemic racism while showing how the human spirit and social courage attempt to adapt to new normal. Her poems move around and in-between what defines us and what we do to ourselves. Her poetry is concerned with how we fail to understand one another due to bias, hate, ignorance and intolerance.” -- Ashok K. Bhargava, President of Writers International Network