Luminous, reflective, confessional at times, Susan Blanshard's 'Poems from the Alley' looks at the light and dark, stone and flesh, water and land, the slopes of these bodies with flashes of autobiographical disclosure. As with all her poems, acknowledgement of the human spirit is evident, not separable, from her writing. 'Poems From The Alley' find shelter in the shift between techniques. Susan brings the present and past worlds to life by reversing and elaborating traditional stanzas and bringing soothsaying echoes of historic form to light. As with previous works, epic book-length prose of 'Sheetstone', 'Honey In The Blood, ' and the poetry of 'Fragments of The Human Heart' and 'Quieter Histories: Winter To Winter', Blanshard connects epochs of time with subtlety, elegance, imagination, emotional attitude, and notable sensuality. 'Poems From The Alley' is a continuum of the dialogue with past and present histories, what is inherited, possessed and dispossessed; what is remembered and what is known. A passionate conversation that exists at the center of her poetry