Poetry Collections

Now Available — WATER MARKS

All things that flow—time, music, water, life—leave us in the end, and this profoundly moving collection of poems asks: “…who will hold / the substance of their songs?” Luckily, it also answers that question: “Each dawn and dusk / places its bet on / poets.” And I’ve got my money on this poet, whose songs mark not only the sorrows and losses: a beloved sister, parents, a faith—but also life’s profound gifts: riverside flowers, constellations, a gorgeous homeland—all life’s love letters, addressed to us. Read this book with joy and gratitude.  —Robert Fanning, author of Severance, Our Sudden Museum, American Prophet and The Seed Thieves

The wise and graceful poems that Mary Anna Scenga Kruch gives us in this collection call us to healing and wholeness. They speak of movement and connection, celebrate our ties to family long ago and far away, and to the rivers, creatures, and stars that soothe and guide us. Everything abides in relationship here. Everything waltzes as one. ––Jan Shoemaker, author of Slow Learner, Flesh and Stones, and The Reliquary Earth

Mary Anna Scenga Kruch’s powerful collection of verse soars across the water to her father’s homeland. We are invited to hear, see, and glide along with the loss of a loved one, the struggles with faith, and a shared love of family. Within the pages of Water Marks, both author and audience revisit the defining moments of our past through Mary Anna’s well-crafted words and powerful images with water. ––Alan Harris, author of Hospice Conversations and Fall Ball

Grace Notes: A Memoir in Poetry & Prose

In Grace Notes: A Memoir in Poetry and Prose, Mary Anna Scenga Kruch creates a hybrid coming-of-age memoir that gives her readers indelible glimpses and insights into a life truly lived. With popular songs as scaffolding, Scenga Kruch ties the stages of her life to the history of her day, most notably the growth of suburbs and the VietNam war. While she pulls no punches in recounting trauma and the forces that can pull families apart, her carefully rendered memories and graceful meditations—suffused with the strength of a loving marriage and immersed in the natural world—let us know that “What Lingers” is ultimately “Benevolence.”
––Dr. Terry Bohnhorst Blackhawk: Kresge Arts in Detroit Literary Fellow; author One Less River (Mayapple Press), a Kirkus Reviews Best 2019 Poetry Title; Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize among other awards.

Mary Anna’s first full-length collection from Goldfish Press is available for purchase through Amazon.

We Draw Breath From the Same Sky

In this collection, Mary Anna Kruch moves in and out of the past: from stories of her parents and grandparents that began in Italy a century ago to those of her long marriage. ‘I will lean into the language of my family, contributing little – but understanding much’ Kruch writes, but through these poems, she contributes a great deal: the sights, smells, tastes, and voices of her personal history of loss and thanksgiving. ‘Oh how I wish you were here,’ she writes to her father, long dead, when she sits with relatives at her father’s childhood home in Pofi, Italy. Through these poems, Kruch invites all of us as readers to be there with her as well. ––Laura Apol, author of Ladder of Sun (winner of the Oklahoma Book Award)  

Mary Anna’s first poetry collection from Finishing Line Press is available through the publisher as well as Amazon.