These poems are both simple and profound, as is the life they reflect. Mrs. Constantino gives us a glimpse of that crucible where all souls are shaped: the family, where all the drama begins and only ends with the final curtain. Her parents, siblings, Catholic school “Wearing an ugly blue uniform with scratchy white collar", husbands, children, grandchildren, a beloved nephew gone too soon, a baby lost and another gained, friends, foes, dogs, travels, work, youth, sickness, age, and abiding faith are all here, in hints and guesses, prayers, and reveries. Poets never tell the whole story. What is not said is often the deepest truth. As Mary writes, 'Life is full, yet life is small.” She understands the mystery and the paradox that life is made of and that poetry tries to express.

-from the Introduction

Charlotte Barr

Author of Looking Up

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Marylou Kalb Constantino is a writer who started writing poetry in 1954. She is a graduate of Park College, Parkville, Missouri, with a degree in Criminal Justice. She retired from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2002. She lives with her husband in the Chattanooga Area of East Tennessee.