Bowlfuls of Blue

A longing for wonder and communion with the natural world can be felt throughout the pages of Alexandra McIntosh's debut poetry collection, Bowlfuls of Blue. McIntosh's work, like that of Wendell Berry, J.R. Tolkien, Mary Oliver, and Annie Dillard, shares a conviction that a writer's sense of place nurtures the humanity and authority of their work. That, ironically, attention to what is at hand lengthens an artist's reach.

While novels and lyrical prose awakened McIntosh's affinity for grou...