Wild Cucumber: New and Selected Poems
Ann Spiers
$18.00 Available April 22, 2025 ISBN 979-8-9917400-3-6
In the opening lines of Wild Cucumber, Ann Spiers writes, “leaving / I walk left into morning glory / no shortcuts.” In her latest full-length collection, Spiers’s poems reveal intimate human yearning, draping events with the lush and rugged backdrops she travels as girl, woman, mother, grandmother, teacher, lover, hiker, writer, birder, gardener, outsider, insider, and in many other voices. Interweaving distinctive imagery of natural and made landscapes with details of local, political, and women’s history, these poems explore the islands, beaches, and volcanoes of the Pacific Northwest; the canyonlands of the Southwest; and visits to Mexico and Thailand. In Wild Cucumber, Spiers invites us along on her enduring journey with no shortcuts offered or needed.
“Ann Spiers's exacting poems explore nature and human nature with the precision of haiku and the humane and contemplative spirit of Northwest poets like Robert Sund and Bill Yake. This accomplished collection of old and new work deserves to be read, reread, and celebrated.” —Kathleen Flenniken, author of Post Romantic, Washington State Poet Laureate 2012–2014