There is so much beauty and peace around us, all we have to do is soak it in and reflect on God’s wonderful gifts of life and love. But even amongst the beauty, there is insecurity, sin, greed, despair. To touch the wonder of God’s everlasting love, all we need to do is look around us. Like the stained-glass windows in a church: “Sunlit shapes dancing/ through hand-carved stained glass windows./ God of light – here.” I have often marveled at the play of God’s light as the multi-colored glass filters the light that shines through.

M. Gail Grant’s chapbook, Bluebirds and Faith, is a collection of compassionate and emotional poems in free verse and Haiku, which trace her personal life’s journey through faith from grief at the loss of a loved one to healing and so much more. Her poems are filled with telling metaphors that reflect on the wonder of God’s creation. She uses a lot of imagery of birds, particularly bluebirds (one of my favorite birds, too), and nature to reflect on her feelings. “Slow down and embrace,/ letting go of the earthly race,/ for the harmonious/ musings of the/ bluebird’s song/ will gently lead you away/ from heartache and dismay.” Her words are like music that captures the true light of living. Her poems speak from her soul to ours in a powerful tribute to God’s everlasting love. This collection of beautiful poems evokes the simple message that the poet learned from her father: “He taught me the most precious treasures in life are free; we simply just need to look around us for glimpses of God’s grace.”

A 150-page collection of poetry, Bluebirds and Faith by M. Gail Grant is an inspirational compilation of verses celebrating God’s gift of eternal grace. At the beginning of the book, Grant offers us insight into her motivations behind the writing she puts on display. Inspired by the passing of her father who she lovingly calls Daddy, Bluebirds and Faith is her attempt at expressing some of the lessons he taught her, namely the importance of looking about to see glimpses of that grace all around us. Her writing spans multiple different styles with some pieces exhibiting a routine rhythmic meter or a regular rhyme scheme, while others have no noticeable form and would be defined more as free verse. Like her poetry as a whole, each stanza is greatly varied as well, though a noticeable portion of the poems were written as tercets which are stanzas of poetry that include three lines.

As written, I found Bluebirds and Faith to be extremely inspiring to myself as a writer and a believer. Many of the things written resonate from deep within Grant’s soul and make it abundantly apparent that this is a very real and raw belief for her. While I enjoyed some of the poems more than others, I have a great appreciation for writers that can bear their souls on the page the way Grant does in this book. This is probably a book that will interest readers with a similar belief in God and it may also attract those that love poetry in general, as there are some great metaphors and other figures of speech on display. Thank you to M. Gail Grant for providing me with the opportunity to read this wonderful book.