Harborless

"The cities of Marquette and Munising, MI, both located on the shore of Lake Superior, have chosen Harborless as one of their community reads for next fall. A collection of poetry might be a daring choice for such a program, but this book is exactly the collection to appeal to experienced readers of poetry as well as readers who believe they don’t like poetry. Its content is compelling and its characters are sympathetic, as in the best fiction, yet its craft is both skillful and subtle. Reading and rereading this book has been exceptionally satisfying." -- Lynn Domino, Poet

"While dozens of books exist chronicling the historical details of the shipwrecks on Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, few have chiseled down through the weight of technical facts to unearth the delicate human details of these tragic moments. In Harborless, Morgan stills the raging narrative waters around these events and shows us the emotions and fears that would have governed the solitary human hearts and minds living through them. " -- David Nilsen for The Collagist

In one series of poems about a fictional deckhand, Morgan composites many wreck stories to imagine the sensory vocabulary of Great Lakes shipping, the way smells and sounds and colors mean different things when your home floats upon the mercy of an angry lake. In the first such poem, “Deckhand: Scent Theory,” we once again are offered evocative olfactory impressions we might never think of otherwise. -- David Nilsen for The Collagist

There are vocations, both professional and personal, that are so singular in their experiences, so demanding in their requirements, that all those who embark on them are bonded across languages, distances, time. Flight might be one. Childbirth, another. Shipping is certainly among these. In a related way, those of us who have never lived a moment of these vocations but have spent solitary hours pondering them might also feel a sort of bond with those who have trusted their fragile bodies to the principles of lift or the wonder of their own biology or a few million pounds of steel rendered buoyant by engineering. For those of us who have lived most of our lives within a heavy wind’s blow of the Great Lakes, there can exist in our hearts a vicarious connection to the men and women who have plied those expanses of icy water over the centuries. We watch the waves bow themselves like mendicants upon Lake Michigan’s beaches, begging Chicago to notice, or watch the sprays toss themselves on Lake Superior’s cliffs as if they could claw their way to the summits, and we feel something in our hearts crash quietly in response, tugging our bodies back to the warmth of the hearth even as our minds are tugged across the waters like desperate barges. Cindy Hunter Morgan has felt that same tug, and responded with the poems of Harborless. -- David Nilsen for The Collagist
https://davidnilsenwriter.com/2024/07/20/a-review-of-harborless-by-cindy-hunter-morgan/


Apple Season

"Whatever tools we have we will employ to preserve our memories, the poem among the best of mediums, especially in the graceful hands of Cindy Hunter Morgan. There is no doubt the poems in this chapbook are born of the purist memories – and memory is a fickle motion, that, once stored away, is only fresh once whether it sits for days or decades. After that, it must be repackaged, becomes a memory of a memory and soon, distortion warps it sideways. So when a memory is extra-precious, it is sad to recall it knowing it will never be so sharp again. Thus art. Thus Apple Season. At first touch, this little book is immediately personal, loved, a hand-made treasure chest. Inside, the poems weave a container as ethereal as any thought, but as reliable as any equation. There is no chance these poems will give out under the weight they carry in memory. So potent are these poems, Apple Season goes beyond the physical weather – each poem in this collection is its own apple and the season is eternal for the reader. 'Hay Season' (p. 15) first appeared in the July 2011 issue of The Michigan Poet. Since then, Cindy Hunter Morgan's poems have charmed us again and again. It's with great pleasure I offer this review of her superb work." -- Foster Neill, Editor of The Michigan Poet

The Sultan, The Skater, The Bicycle Maker

"...A phenomenal mixture of history, subtle magical realism, and character study that feels as if it should be printed on parchment or papyrus or in an 18th century diary or on the back of a damaged antique map. Each poem deals with the practitioner of a different trade during a different historical period, which gives the impression of enormous scope despite the slender length. Yet, each poem is also highly individual and pierces quickly and deeply into a single rich life experience. I read it twice in a row, and even on the second read some of Morgan's quiet shifts into the supernatural made me catch my breath. I'm excited about this chapbook, and I can't recommend it enough." -- Justin Hamm, Editor of The Museum of Americana. Blogger at Noise for its Own Sake

"First off, I love this [chap]book. On to the skinny: It's set up in one continuous section, with each poem exploring the humanity of a profession. From the very first lines, Cindy sets a tone that is immediately both, in her own words in The Clockmaker, “precise and mysterious.” While the titles define individuals by profession, the poems define professions by the individuals. Very nice. But there's more to this book than idea – there's a supreme sense of love throughout this book, a love that is both mythic and ordinary – the magic of the everyday illuminated with elegant articulations that not only capture my attention, but also reflect on my own life, deepening my sense of self, place, and purpose. This is a book anyone, young or old, literary or not, will enjoy and carry in their thoughts. Hers are poems that, in speaking of life's secret magic, reproduce it within the reader." -- Foster Neill, Editor of The Michigan Poet