"Turning these pages of [Stacey Murphy's] first published collection, we sense that this poet has continued to move among the unknowns, but this time is guiding us, assuring us that Nature, which she observes so patiently and well, has the answers, and what she can divine, she passes along. 'For the leaf, simply letting go / is the thing.' Or, 'some things just pick their own time / to hold and let go.' Like Nature, she is a force that derives from an innate strength, so beware: 'At our roots, / we can only suffer / without relief / for just so long.' . . . This writer is not Wordsworth, or Frost; she is Stacey Murphy. Walk with her."
- Jack Hopper, Poet Laureate of Tompkins County, New York, in 2015 and 2016; author of Rafting the Medusa and three other poetry collections
"Stacey Murphy possesses a rare gift for weaving together close observation of the natural world with keen insight into human nature, forging unexpected connections that elicit a grateful 'ahhhhh' of recognition."
- Zee Zahava, Poet Laureate of Tompkins County, New York, in 2017 and 2018; teacher and leader of writing workshops in Ithaca, New York
"Stacey Murphy's debut poetry collection offers an unexpectedly relevant bedrock of solace and stability from which we can dream . . . Balancing nature, human nature, and current events, her clematis brings an opportunity for new discussion; the wall spider saves her young from a flood; fields speak in tongues during drought; a nearby slave graveyard, long denied, comes alive; and in the title poem of Old Stones Understand we come to believe when a boulder dreams . . . Above all, her abundant 'what if' poems open our eyes to possibility, bracing against despair, even when 'Today my eyes feel best closed.'"
- Carolyn Clark, poet; author of several collections, including New Found Land (2018) and, with her mother, Florence Adams Clark, Poet Duet: A Mother and Daughter (2020)
