Advance Praise for I Ask the Mountain to Heal My Heart

From the first line of the first poem: “A mountain, like Polaris, is a point of reference / to keep us from becoming lost. A point of reverence,” to the last line of the last poem: How you said, I will / love you always and / I said, for-/ ever,” these poems rise in front of us—as does the mountain—and remind us that Love—however long, however fleeting—is mountain strong and timeless as is this entire collection. These are gorgeous, heart-rending, heart-healing poems. Brava! Thank you, Beth Copeland.

—Martina Reisz Newberry, author of Beyond Temples

In I Ask the Mountain to Heal My Heart, Beth Copeland reveals that the moon’s shadow side suggests silence so she can do what is necessary, “Bloom.” Throughout this lovingly curated collection of love poems to mountain, cloud and fog, deer, all the beauty surrounding her North Carolina home, she breaks the silence to pursue the idea that “the courage to fail is life’s greatest gift.” The result is beautifully crafted, singularly breathtaking poems of a poet extraordinaire. My notes are full of quotable lines that haunt and thrill and enchant for their freshness, and prove that the mountain has indeed healed her with the empowering “strength and solitude” to make art.

—Diana Rosen, author of High Stakes & Expectations

Beth Copeland is the author ofShibori Blue: Thirty-six Views of The Peak (Redhawk Publications, 2024); Selfie with Cherry (Glass Lyre Press, 2022); Blue Honey, 2017 Dogfish Head Poetry Prize winner; Transcendental Telemarketer (BlazeVOX, 2012); and Traveling through Glass, 1999 Bright Hill Press Poetry Book Award winner. Beth lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains.