Magma Intrusions

The wisest poets instinctually follow their obsessions. That's true of Meg Weston, whose unique obsession with volcanoes and geology is utterly captivating. These poems transform and transport us by rendering the ancient earth as a living, breathing presence that surrounds our daily lives. Weston's intriguing metaphors allow us a keener understanding of the many complexities and contradictions of life: the smoldering secrets of family that erupt, then cool; love, either flowing through us like lava, or slowly carving through our hearts like a glacier; and the lofty peace we all seek as the solid rock right underneath our very feet.

-Richard Blanco, 2013 Presidential Inaugural Poet, author of How to Love a Country

Before Magma Intrusions gets underway, Meg Weston defines the meaning of the title along with her obsession with volcanoes and traveling the world to witness and be in their presence. The spaces between local rocks are the magma intrusions found on the coast of Maine where the poet has lived most of her adult life. The poems that follow are imaginative meditations that celebrate self-discovery and purpose. Meg Weston's voice in every poem is poised and confident as she explores a lifetime of growth and acceptance. Throughout the three sections that comprise the collection, the physical world is always present in every stage of her life along with a constant sense of awe. There is empathy blended with an illuminating grace in these carefully crafted poems that continue in the exquisite silences between every stanza. After reading the entire collection, you will want to read it again and again.

-Kevin Pilkington, award-winning poet/novelist and author of Playing Poker with Tennessee Williams

The visible scars in the granite along the coast of Maine are magma intrusions-revealed in this book as a metaphor for the way life is shaped by the intrusion of loss. In Magma Intrusions, Weston writes about geology, volcanoes, and family and the connections between them. Her poems tell stories, make us laugh, cry, and fall in love with the earth. In the Japanese art of kintsugi, the repair of broken things makes them more beautiful. In a similar way, the poems in Magma Intrusions reveal the destructive and creative powers that erupt, flow, and heal into a fulfilling life.

-Natalie Goldberg, author of Three Simple Lines: A Writer's Pilgrimage Into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku, and Writing Down the Bones