Essays, Art and Plays by Dan

Book of the Week – Still at the Edge by Peggy Willis Lyles

Peggy Willis Lyles’ poetry still occupies a unique position in nature writing today. Her poetry is one of the sacredness of the ordinary, urging us to notice, and be awed by the quiet miracles of life. Lyles is a weaver of subtlety—her poems are whispers that linger, urging us to look closely, listen long, and find meaning in everyday events.

Lyles can contain worlds within a few words. Each poem here is such a lens, curving the riddles of life into flashes of understanding and wonder.

Be sure to checkout Peggy’s Poet Profile in the Haiku Registry.

High noon: 
the shadow leaps
leaps beneath the frog

This poem shocked me with its simplicity and richness. The frog silhouette bathed in sunlight, the shadow almost alive below it, is firmly rooted in nature. The poem is one fleeting beat of existence.

Summer solstice:
letting go of the balloon
reaching for the string

And here Lyles finds sustenance in a moment of departure light and heavy, glad and bittersweet. The balloon takeoff is symbolic for loss and release, the reaching hand is an emblem of our species’ urge to catch what inevitably has to slip away. Lyles takes hold of that transcendent moment of release with poignancy that lasts.

October twilight:
the scarecrow in the garden
drops its other glove

The scarecrow, the silent protector of the fields, approaches humanity in this poem, losing its remaining glove. The mood is somber but serene, a contemplation on endings and the quiet dignity of what remains.

Hailstones
through
the spider’s web

This line stopped me in my tracks. The image of hailstones piercing the delicate design of a spider’s web captures nature’s duality—its resilience and fragility. The web, intricate and strong, somehow survives.  

As I closed Still at the Edge, I felt the urge to step outside, to listen, and to see. Lyles’ poetry is a gentle teacher, one that reminds us to live with our eyes open and our hearts attuned to the quiet miracles that surround us. Her poems are not just words on a page; they are invitations to pause, to notice, and to marvel.

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You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library. Please share your favorite poem from the book with us.