Florence Dacey
Florence Dacey
Books
Latest Poetry Collection
"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."
Excerpt from review by Marnie Mueller, posted on peacecorpsworldwide.org.
Rock Worn by Water was nominated for the 2009 best poetry book by a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.
Cover art by Elizabeth Erickson
My first poetry chapbook, published by Minnesota Writers' Publishing House and The Kraken Press, with illustrations by Randy Scholes. In the introduction, poet and editor Mike Finley writes: "What makes her commonplaces uncommon is the way she transmutes them with imagination, hunger, and love...Dacey's poems are always full, always female, ever on the threshold of reality, of her human limitation. As we read, we also step toward that threshold. This sensation of nearness defies intelligence or sensibility. This is the feeling she calls the swoon."
Published by Midwest Villages and Voices, with cover art by Elizabeth Erickson, this book of thirty-six poems continues an exploration of my personal and communal life as a woman and mother. Meridel Le Sueur writes on the dust jacket: "Here a woman poet speaks from the woman's experience, rich and direct, not imitating the patriarchal voice, speaking from her own erotic 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. And the language rich as field flowers, abundant, hardy, sexual, unabashedly female with out sentiment or unnatural images, apology, decoration, shyness. A natural woman speaking at last."
A tribute to Maynard the dog, these poems were written over several years when Florence dog-sat for extended periods. They range from the humorous to reflective and are set in the Minnesota River Valley near Granite Falls, Minnesota.
The "We Celebrate the River" poem was created for the opening ceremony of the Minnesota River Meander in 2012. Handprinted at A to Z Printing in Montevideo, Minnesota, the folding booklet highlights the artwork of Audrey Arner.
For information on purchasing books, please visit the Contact page.