As the dance floor of life tilts beneath our feet, do we keep dancing? In this inspired collection of Susan Alexander’s poems, we sway to the rhythms of passion and death, of family, myth and benediction. In worlds where cow-eyed goddesses steal nymph’s tongues and steering wheels are taken over by octopi, there are no established signposts. The individual moments making up the tune of this poet’s life offer the possibility of finding the beauty within the everyday resonance of our own existence.

“Susan Alexander’s creations are testament to John Berger’s assertion that poems are closer to prayer than they are to prose. Especially in the last section, I felt as if I’d come upon a contemporary book of common prayer, each entry fresh and deeply resonant, rich with the details of daily life and the poet’s desire to touch the sacred. It is in her boldness to do so, in her clear-eyed vision, and in her humble acceptance of human frailties that these poems shine.” — Lorna Crozier

 Nothing You Can Carry is rooted in a keen, even holy, sense of place within the natural world. Today that place is haunted by anxiety over a precarious present and a darker future. These poems take an honest, sometimes ironic and sometimes broken-hearted look at how the self and society are implicated in our climate crisis and the systemic complexities surrounding it. Yet life goes on. The collection moves through environmental fears and spills into all the areas that absorb the self – memory, story, family, love. These poems are vivid and vulnerable, humorous and emotional. They summon the deeper mysteries of being human in a world that is increasingly separate from the sacred.