"These are poems of praise and wonder graced by a delicate touch. In this, her third book, Rich examines and recognizes the constructed geography of our interior lives. And, as a result, we are given midlife's mature and `Unexpected Song'."-Brian Turner<BR><BR>"Kaleidoscopic curiosity, powerfully kinesthetic language, and an encompassing compassion range this abundant collection, in which personal and public realms serve as equal alembics for the distillation of both materia and light."-Jane Hirshfield<BR><BR>"This is art in the light of conscience, as Marina Tsvetaeva has written, voicing the sufferings of Somalia, Sarajevo and Srebrenica, history and its black ash of question marks yet it is also an art of praise. From The Alchemist's Kitchen spills an abundance of the world's fruits, herbs and pastries, gestures of hospitality and regard, for Susan Rich is a poet who writes in the midst of things, and out of a searing awareness of loss and obliviousness to loss, desire and its absence, what it means to be spiritually awake, to behold human life in all its possibility, pathos and transience and yet say yes."-Carolyn forche