BLOOMING WILD SO CLOSE TO HOME by Lois Klein is a book of poems about a World War II orphan who will do just that. Walk with her as she grows up and matures as a woman and a poet. "Lois Klein is a master of the lean, pared down image, the metaphor threaded through in a way that brings a surprise at the finish. Her complex play of words and internal rhymes make each poem a delight. Read in sequence, the poems begin in youth"s disappointment and rise in the last section toward new joy and all that the body had waited for--a metaphysical satisfaction beyond words."--Selden Edwards "If I am "...shipwrecked/And glad of it," it will be because I have a copy of Blooming Wild with me. These poems not only sing but dance, pulling you in to glide and spin, then sail to insightful, precise landings. Best of all, Klein makes sure that her words, however private in their terrors and joys, loves and losses, belong to us all. With iron grip and memory"s bite, her "...voices/gone beyond the burden/of human worlds" inhabit is, body, mind and spirit. Thank you, Lois Klein!"--Ellen Chavez Kelley "BLOOMING WILD SO CLOSE TO HOME begins in childhood, recounting its innocence and simplicity, but soon the complexities of life overtake the child who is "engulfed" by responsibilities. In sculptured verse, recognizing the value of compression and restraint, Lois Klein glimpses evidence of loss everywhere, but does not despair. Rather, she finds comfort, inspiration, and even wisdom in the natural world. And with tender eroticism, returning to her opening theme, she proclaims: "I felt like the child I had been and wished to be again, more body than mind." These gemlike poems both dazzle and delight."--Kurt Brown