These Worlds Between Us

Beth Marshall Jack travels These Worlds Between Us with a magician's pen and a "click of her heels," back and forth in time and place to memorialize her relationships with family and loves, past and present. Her ecstatic language and imagery rush like a relentless wind at times as she explores her many worlds. Now and then, she dives into the murky waters of loss and regret for another look. Throughout, she explores the stuff of mythology while creating her own, to stand courageously in new found light. -Perie Longo, author of Baggage Claim: Poems and former Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara Reading Beth Marshall Jack's lovely debut poetry collection, These Worlds Between Us, is like sitting down to a cup of tea with a wise and gentle friend. Her poems are intimate and lyrical, letting us into an interior landscape that mirrors our own fears, yearnings, joys, disappointments, and wonders. Jack's deep command of language and imagery allow us as readers to enter the poems easily and with confidence that what we encounter will enlighten and lift us to some greater understanding of a universal truth. In one of my favorite poems, "With a Click of My Heels," Jack confronts loss and the helplessness one feels over the inability to make things different... Jack's imagistic language soars, sometimes eliciting an audible "oh " as in these lines from "Compass" ..".every breath sags heavily, as I squeeze the sponge/tighter and tighter, as if stanzas were turned/inside out from me, how my body/half-turned, still expected him." Or these lines from "Figurante" "I am crumpled, worn out like an old ballet slipper/with ribbons bleached, once carnation pink/....Even the mirrors seem to leer/deliberate satyr teeth." Many of her poems have mythic allusions, including the lovely "Circe," which was awarded second prize in poetry from The Writer's Journal. Jack is an accomplished writer whose poetry has been honored many times over the years. This worthy collection reflects her careful attention to language, rhythm, imagery and story. -Marcia Meier, Former Director, Santa Barbara Writers Conference and Willow Rock Journal ..".Beth Jack marries inner emotion with sensation from the outside world in beautiful poems. This is a delightful read." -Tim Pfau, poet and former Board Member, Oregon Poetry Association