Amy Woschek Schmidt, in Given Days, sees the world as a wondrous gift from God (not just in the book but in her everyday life) and these poems portray that wonder, that gift, simply and exquisitely. She very subtly, but memorably, paints with the sounds of words: "fertile skies / vast as a farmer's field. . . . season of sun, hot and high, . . . jars of jewels on the shelf of my mind."  Like me, you'll find yourself saying to friends, as I did again and again with my partner, "Listen to this one, so beautiful." Her poems are all delightful gifts. Lovely, lovely.

GIVEN DAYS, is an insightful collection of seasonally-based poems by Amy Woschek Schmidt. With a voice intimately attuned to the rhythms of rural life, Schmidt finds transcendence in the details of everyday experience. Whether celebrating the first blooms of spring, the fertility of summer, the turning of autumn, or the stillness of winter, Schmidt reminds us to be patient and to pay attention to the small miracles unfolding all around us.

GIVEN DAYS has an original cover illustration by Gary Kelley