Beauty Breaks In

"Mary Ann Samyn is a devotional poet, one devoted to the mischief and sanctity of a threshold life. Reading, delightedly, through Beauty Breaks In, I sometimes felt that I was bird watching with Paul Celan or going to the movies with Edmond Jabes. Better still, I felt a continuing spiritual economy of pure refreshment. 'A little mayhem goes a long way' as Samyn avows, and I rejoice to believe her." -Donald Revell

"Mary Ann Samyn writes poems in which the impossible happens-through language, the human experience is turned to sky, fire, fireworks, diamonds. This is a poet who is able to hijack sorrow, or error, or delight, and transform them into deeply imagined, perfectly condensed and terrifyingly expanded glimpses. One doesn't quit reading a Samyn poem, as they accumulate in the reader's mind, follow us like our own shadows, permanently. There's that much power. I find myself wondering what source it is this poet has tapped into-and how frightening and lovely it is that she has done so, so that I can tap into it through her, and have a chance to stare into the Mystery through her poems." -Laura Kasischke