Welcome to the September 2018 Blue Heron Speaks Feature! This month, we shine a spotlight on BHR contributor, Diane Sahms-Guarnieri, who is a stunning wordsmith. In her collection, The Handheld Mirror of the Mind (Kelsay Books, 2018), we journey through themes of loss, grief, our shared humanity, and the complexities of the inner life. With great tenderness and lyricism, Guarnieri skillfully navigates these topics. Her graceful descriptions of the natural world provide a vivid magic, as if painting with words. While dealing with human struggles, this collection offers hope. Guarnieri invites us to honor all beings, all creatures, and all understandings of faith by joining together, “as global dreamers in coexistence.”

Please visit the Blue Heron Speaks Featured Author page of our site to read 2 sample poems by Diane Sahms-Guarnieri from her latest book, and to learn more about her work.

Diane Sahms-Guarnieri, a native Philadelphian, is the author of four full-length poetry collections: Images of Being (Stone Garden Publishing, 2011), Lights Battered Edge (Anaphora Literary Press, 2015), Night Sweat (Red Dashboard Press, 2016) and The Handheld Mirror of the Mind (Kelsay Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared in a number of online and print publications.  She is poetry editor at North of Oxford.  Visit her at http://www.dianesahms-guarnieri.com/