Poet & Author

"Here a woman poet speaks from the woman's experience, rich and direct, not imitating the patriarchal voice, speaking from her own body of birthing, feeding as the earth nourishes, not in conflict or a reflection of the male world, but simply appearing in the meadow of her own weathers, in her own opulent skin."

Meridel Le Sueur on Jacket of The Necklace

Click HERE to listen to Florence reading her poems

Click on book image to order

Florence’s latest book of poems, Rock Worn by Water, focuses on our place within the natural world. Contact her to schedule a reading followed by some discussion about your local environmental issues and efforts.

Recent Reviews of Rock Worn by Water

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
"With three previous collections to her name, Florence Chard Dacey brings readers ROCK WORN BY WATER. Simple verse with a simple message, her work paints with a vivid brush of her thoughts making for a highly fulfilling romp through the world of poetry. ROCK WORN BY WATER is a treasure for any poetry collection. "Cedar": Oh cedar, you are cut down now, gone like the buffalo. Where is your green? Where will the deer sleep now? Who will hide me from the rain? Oh cedar, you are cut down now. Gone is your scent, gone the blue berries. In your stump-Red."

Excerpt from review posted on peacecorpsworldwide.org, by Marnie Mueller. Rock Worn by Water was nominated for the best poetry book by a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer in 2009.

"Chard Dacey did not disappoint. She’s a good poet, whose major theme is the place where humans and the natural world intersect, frequently in rapture, though sadly, in these accelerating times we live in, all too often on a collision course. Full disclosure: As an environmentalist and a nature observer myself, I don’t much like flowery poems that use nature as metaphor, nor overly didactic poems that blatantly lay out atrocities perpetrated on the land. But Chard Dacey is neither of those writers, and that’s what makes her poems so fine and interesting. She weaves her praise songs organically out of a deep knowledge of the Minnesota eco-system. She knows her land, her flowers, and her fauna so completely that the wilderness merges effortlessly with her poetic self. There’s no need or room for fancy flights in her plainspoken verse. She deals with the politics of destruction with equal subtlety through the simple juxtaposition of undemanding nature with the follies of insistent human stresses."

Author of four published poetry collections: Rock Worn By Water — The Swoon — The Necklace — Maynard Went this Way . . . and the libretto for the opera Lightning, performed by In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater.
Loft-McKnight and Nimrod-Hardman awards in poetry.
Poems published in numerous literary journals and fifteen anthologies.
Poetry readings in Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, New York.
Published essays on rural life, the arts, and nature.

To learn more about Florence's writing career and read more poems, please visit: www.mnartists.org/Florence_Dacey