Captive Voices: New and Selected Poems, 1960-2008 Book

Over a fifty-year career, Eleanor Ross Taylor has established herself as one of the foremost southern poets of her generation. Captive Voices gathers selections from her five previous books along with a generous helping of new poems, to present poems ranging from contemporary pieces about a bag lady on a bus, to intensely personal poems about her dislike for her grandmother and worries about her son. The title poem—a real tour de force—explores the notion of captivity on several levels as it speaks to the suffering we all endure, some of which is of our own making. Decidedly regional yet determinedly universal, this remarkable volume, along with a foreword by Ellen Bryant Voigt, attests to the singular talent of a woman described as "a poet of genius."

Library Journal

At 90, Taylor has been writing for decades, and this volume offers the best of her previous work—and a clutch of sparkling new poems. If you haven't read her before, prepare yourself for something remarkable. Whatever the subject, whatever the setting, Taylor's writing defines musicality; she's got a sense of rhythm that can make other poets sound like doggerel. A significant work.