Intact

Intact by Beverly Cartwright is not just another poetry collection. This book is a document of life. It's a tome of the questions we all ask ourselves. While the experiences herein are those of the poet, they speak to the universal desire to find "something to put [one's] faith in." It's a picture of a life forever searching for "something that was more than blood." This book is the epitome of "life and the best way to reveal it. Cartwright's poetry displays a careful craftsmanship often found lacking in modern writing. Every word is precisely chosen for maximum impact. Every emotion is laid bare in the purest form, making the collection all the more resonant for the reader. It's a book for those who find themselves in "a place not of their choosing." It's a book that looks toward the future while "the good eye/[is always] watching the road home." With Intact, Beverly Cartwright has given poetry readers a portrait of life to be pondered and shared for years to come."

-James Benger, author of One Week

Beverly Cartwright's first book of poems, Intact, grabbed me. She opens the door to her life so we can understand where she's coming from...and

probably where we've come from, too. It's a pleasure to meet Cartwright's friends, family, animals, to hear her downhome voice. She also knows when poetic phrases will warm the writing: "He came back to the farm / the summer after high school... / A mythical job where a person's hands /take on the color of the night sky / and you can't scrub the dusk from your fingertips." She moves us from memory and melancholy to humor in her song lyrics to "Brown Rice Daddy": "Well you and Richard Gere, baby, / You know you think you look alike. / Well, I got news for you daddy, /You look more like his bike."

-Alarie Tennille, author of Running Counterclockwise and Three A.M. at the Museum

"Beverly Cartwright's poetry collection, Intact, is a journey in search of comfort, one that seems out of reach, somewhere beyond the horizon. There is loss in this collection, and with loss comes the desire to recapture the past. Cartwright expresses that desire in several poems. "I'll have to do penance / for the times I hid your kiss, / for the times I'd like to have missed. / Keep me on your list." (Keep Me on Your List) Longing comes through strongest in I Thought I Saw You, "the illusion lasted longer than it would have without the mask. / One good thing about this pandemic, / I could maintain for ten more seconds that you were alive." Cartwright goes on to remind us that loss never leaves us, regardless of the season. "... it's too late to separate the plants out now, / The Hosta will have to stay crowded in against the orange day lilies, / Fighting with the pale Columbine I didn't plant, / the young woman who lived here before me had no children." (And It Is Spring Again) Readers will identify with Cartwright's sentiments where loss becomes a part of us. With the eponymous poem, Intact, she concludes with the truth many of us tell ourselves when dealing with loss, "a handful of delicate, white lies / that would somehow land intact, / just on the right side of our hearts." This collection is one that will hit home in the heart of any reader."

-Ken Gierke, author of Random Riffs and Heron Spirit