A Kinship with Ash David J. Atkinson it felt like a heavy

it felt like a heavy weight had been taken off her shoulders

He came back a changed man

Next came the exhaustion

and compliance

From the dank little city of Derry

A Kinship with Ash David J. Atkinson it felt like a heavyIt's difficult to accept that shadows, too, are products of the natural world. Often we hold what's beautiful next to what we fear. As much as we want to appeal to our better angels, cruelty hovers and haunts our hearts. In Heather Swan's A Kinship with Ash, wisdom is hard won. Elegant, image rich, and full of birdsong, these poems question and delight. But what is poetry if not the mind's silhouette? In the pastoral tradition we confront our