“We open our dry mouths like the baby birds who rasp and cry. Fruit juice drips sticky-sweet rinsed off with hose or cold-water lake, ocean, sound. We lie down on the face of the earth and the heat blurs molecular lines…”

Oh, you must have this book now! Just the introduction to the Summer images alone is worth the purchase price! Nikki McClure is a local-to-me artist based in Olympia, WA. Her speciality is lace-delicate but boldly graphic images which she makes only by cutting away bits of black paper. (How can this be? What wonder!) The result? Images that are compellingly nostalgic and crisply modern in precisely the same moment. This art she pairs with the most evocative of words to capture the wonders of each season — one perfect moment at a time. McClure’s words of wonder for Summer include INCUBATE and RETURN, both capturing that wonderful back-to-the-womb feeling you have when you make the first springboard dive of the season. Treat yourself. Collect Raindrops: The Seasons Gathered will nourish you all through the year.