Skipping Stones by Betty Hayes Albright can be delightful and clever, but it also has a deep, mystical, romantic quality that banishes time and conjures up spaces where love and station in life do not matter. This final quality is especially true of the long narrative poem, Maeberrie, in Book III.
There is an old fashioned quality to this book, one based upon ancient notions of Gaia, the sanctity of earth and human relationships, the aesthetic beauty found in the oceans, mountains, and forests, and the importance of song inside the writing of poetry. There was a time when poetry was supposed to be timeless, and Albright clearly is still imbued with that ethic.
In an age when change is the primary value, there is still room for the sense that every part of reality is connected whether the reality is a galaxy millions of years distant or a bird that flies into a closed room in a mysterious world and hovers above a candle.
In many ways we long for the old substances of story, emotions, and cleverness, searching for touchstones that help give our life meaning in the long river of time.
Betty Hayes Albright is a master of all of these things, story, emotional impact, intense longing, the prickliness and glory of everyday and deep relationships, and especially song. Her poetry can get into you and make you realize that, yes, wonder is still exists in our wonder-filled universe.
The poet Lauren Scott has said, "Betty's poetry narration in Skipping Stones is mythical and dreamlike, moving and heart-wrenching, delightful and thought-provoking... Each word, each line, each verse..portrays wild imagery and as mastery of captivating storytelling."
Candice Daquin, author of Finch the Lock, says that "Albright's voice is pure and deep simultaneously, and she writes using the dichotomy of human gravitas, fancy and folly, and our enduring relationship with the natural world..."
For those willing to be swept away into a poetic world that they will never forget, The Skipping Stones is their ticket to tranportation.
