My Blind Obsession

By: Ann-Chadwell Humphries

Illustrated By: Danny McLaughlin

Reading through "My Blind Obsession," Ann-Chadwell Humphries' latest collection, is an adventure and a revelation; it is a journey in visionary company. The poet brings us all over the place, from the rural Texas hill country of her youth, to the South Carolina midlands of her present, and outward to eastern Europe and the Middle East, immersing us in stunning flora (wild and tended), fauna (wild and domestic), disasters (human and natural), and spheres of light and dark. In "My Blind Obsession," Humphries unsparingly looks outward from concerns personal and localized—most pointedly, the distinct experience of the poet's adult-onset blindness—to larger social and political matters, expanding seamlessly to an eclectic and global reach, open-heartedly bringing together near and far. Ann-Chadwell Humphries is one who sees with more than sight and she's tendered us a remarkable new collection of poetry.