Come before Winter: Reflections on Faith and the Indomitable Spirit of Man and Nature

With attentiveness, devotion and tenderness, Jo Taylor has created an intimate collection of poems filled with family, faith, song and community. I love how the poems invoke conversations with other writers, singers and artists across the centuries, dancing with revelation and unanswerable questions. Each page is an invitation, ＂articulating the language of love.＂

-Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, author of All the Honey and host of The Poetic Path

The speaker of Jo Taylor’s wise and generous debut book of poems knows ＂the first frost on the turnips makes them/less bitter.＂ She knows that winter is coming even as she describes ＂donor cells, like a school of tiny fish, swimming swiftly/towards their new reef＂ or a mother at midnight ＂sitting at the Singer/sewing machine after a long day’s work.＂ These poems are full of gratitude and wonder, and they seek to ＂lessen the looming chill.＂

-Faith Shearin, author of Lost Language

Here is a collection of psalms and lamentations overflowing with faith and praise even in darkness. Those of us who have wavered with uncertainty or strayed from the path of God’s love and mystery will be invited to find our way home before winter. Jo Taylor’s stunning poetry moves through the seasons, contemplating creation, mourning the gift of our fleeting time on earth, heart heavy, heart full.

-Lorette C. Luzajic, editor, The Ekphrastic Review