Telling the Bees

Faith Shearin's latest poetry collection, Telling the Bees, is evidence of an ongoing, important talent. The author of three previous collections of poetry, the most recent, Moving the Piano (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2011), was featured on numerous occasions on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac. Doubtless, the book received such overwhelming attention because Shearin proves, poem after poem, that she writes what we need: poetry that is accessible and meaningful, without gimmick and possessing a music and imagination hardly equaled by her contemporaries. As poet Tim Seibles wrote about Moving the Piano, "I think we want poems that can help us, poems that invite us to be clear . . . so that we can take the next step and not be made a fool by this life." Telling the Bees is no-nonsense poetry at its best.