A year ago Rae Marie Taylor sent me a galley proof of her book for endorsement, and I wrote one sentence: “Charmed, intrigued, educated, outraged, uplifted, enchanted, activated-all these soul states await readers who journey through the pages of The Land: Our Gift and Wild Hope.”

Now Our Gift and Wild Hope has completed the publication journey and emerged into the world as a fully and handsomely fledged book.

Poet and essayist Taylor is engaged in this volume with the beauties, the threats, and the possibilities vested in the earth, our common home. This book of essays, focused on the Southwest, examines the mounting insults to the land, while anchoring roots of hope in the human beings who are actively and creatively pioneering sustainable ways of living on the land.

Designed by Angela Werneke, this elegant new book offers a poetic witness to the pervasive changes now afoot.