The poems of Bob Ambrose take me to the same place as the poems of Mary Oliver—an embedded presence in the natural world, over and over again, sometimes fierce, sometimes gentle, always evoking a second reading and then a third. A necessity for your bedside table or your backpack as you wander about. His gift is a blessing.
– Ursula W. Goodenough, Professor Emerita of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, is the author of The Sacred Depths of Nature and the textbook Genetics.
Ambrose’s poetry is a balm for my soul. Small things—easily overlooked but immense in exquisite beauty or loss—spring into sharp focus in the poet’s compassionate attention. “Thirteen Moons” delivers me into grounded mindfulness, beauty, delight, solastalgia, reverence, and wonder.mazing planet we call home.
– JD Stillwater, Science Ambassador and influencer in the science-and-religion dialogue, an officer of the Religious Naturalist Association, and Council Member of the Institute of Religion in an Age of Science.
“Thirteen Moons and a Day is a beautiful immersion in our natural world, but a contemporary one with its asphalt, cameras and atomic clocks. A breathtaking outdoor excursion; a walk of special perception: equal in reverence for nature and life – a life well-lived.
– Jason D. Keune, MD, General Surgeon, is a Board Member of the Religious Naturalist Association and Council Member of the Institute of Religion in an Age of Science
An inveterate observer of the natural world, Bob Ambrose in Thirteen Moons and a Day presents a loving, lyrical response to the seasons of that world and of our lives. The colors and life of the countryside are recorded with all humility (“I did not earn this day”) and “a fleeting sweetness.” Though we possess “souls of dust and wind-borne chaff,” we are called away from screen and book to moments of transcendence in these often achingly beautiful poems. Ambrose describes with amazing insight the feelings most of us have experienced. Indeed, don’t we all know “The Ache at the Edge of Autumn”? Thirteen Moons and a Day is a collection to enjoy and savor.
– Sarah Gordon, Professor of English Emerita at Georgia College and State University is the author of two books on Flannery O’Connor and three poetry collections, including Distances, The Lost Thing: Poems, and Six White Horses: Poems.
Thirteen Moons and a Day – Poems on Seasons Relived 