A Spring of Resilient Light

In her bold second collection, A Spring of Resilient Light, Karen Poppy crafts poems that speak from the body, the land, and the unseen. Her voice-part oracle, part survivor-confronts cycles of harm and violence, from personal violation to inherited wounds, and the healing that follows. These poems embrace rupture as a path to transformation. Poppy interrogates the boundaries between destruction and beauty, guiding readers through ash and regrowth toward a fragile, defiant wholeness shaped by endurance, truth-telling, and deep ecological connection. EARLY PRAISE:'Psychological and unyielding, this collection gives equal measure to vulnerability and strength. It asks, Can oblivion be beautiful? and dares to say it can. It leads us to the brink, and then it leads us out. -JANE HUFFMAN, author of Public Abstract'...a dynamic paean in which the poet, employing sensual description, artful concision, and silence, seems akin to a contemporary, far-seeing Cassandra, as well as a womanly Chiron, a wounded but indomitable healer offering hard-won spiritual wisdoms and earnest revelations in verse.' -Cyrus Cassells, 2021 Texas Poet Laureate,'Karen Poppy reckons with the power we have in the face of nature, and recognizes our powerlessness, too, asking us to consider that maybe it is best to flow in this life, to be healing light and soothing / Darkness. Open this book and read the beauty that awaits you inside of it.' -OCTAVIO QUINTANILLA, author of The Book of Wounded Sparrows 6