Praise for Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough

Immersing yourself in the work, you’ll discover stories rich in warmth and humor, as well as pain and regret. Some of the best are in the voice of a mature and sage (sadder but wiser) woman looking back at the missteps of her younger self, especially in love. . . . In addition to poignant narratives, this collection includes dry humor and the satisfaction of deep metaphor. . . . Revelations arise from well-observed details in these poems…”

—Jeanne Julian, Main Street Rag

In Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough, we see denial and indulgence—all the things we withhold: love, food, companionship, desire, hope—and what happens when we allow ourselves these things. “I defined myself for years by how I followed rules, / . . . denied for so long all the ways my body / wanted to devour and be devoured.” When permitting herself things long-denied, Cawood acknowledges she doesn’t always get it right: “. . . I was the party maker, the vandal, the stumbling / stupid person with her hand raised in the air, ready to fling, / willing to break anything while longing for nothing / but love.” And how many of us have been there—ready to break, ready for love? As I read through this collection, I was struck by how Cawood notices the smallest of things and reminds us to find joy, how she shows us that “The magic was always / in the miracle / of one more day.” Cawood tells us how she “eat[s] the bars, not even slowly, // and with no apology.” and this is how I consumed this collection—greedy for every word she laid on the page, every image she painted, every morsel she doled out.

—Courtney LeBlanc, author of Her Whole Bright Life, winner of the Jack McCarthy Book Prize

Shuly Xóchitl Cawood’s personal and human poems lift us into a world where the past—no matter its complexities or tragedies—can be understood and transformed. Watching her learn compassion for who she used to be helps me rethink my younger self. This poet’s gift is for transformation toward joy. Here she meditates on time (“Rising takes the kind of time you give knowing // you won’t get it back”) and hope (“Luck is almost the same / thing as hope”), and want—the book, so much like so many of us, is want-haunted. 

We read poetry to do the impossible, to live inside another human mind. “I want to tell you a story. // A story with no shame,” Cawood writes. Yes; let her tell you about her mother who doesn’t believe she can cook or about best friends and good friends, holiday parties and soft-boiled eggs and buttermilk rolls. Learn “Yes is everywhere— / like fireflies and silver-sided leaves and dogs that chase the rain.” I’m so glad this book exists. Shuly Xóchitl Cawood has a talent for narrative as well as whimsy, for nonce forms—she’s a master of refrain and of riff— and I came away from these poems not only pleased, but happier for having read Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough.                   

—Laura Lee Washburn, author of The Book of Stolen Images  

Shuly Xóchitl Cawood’s powerful storytelling is alive and vibrant throughout this stunning new poetry collection, Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough. Her signature themes run throughout, including: the journey through, to, and from desire and relationships; deep abiding love for family and food; hunger; and the things that nourish and torment us. You can’t read this collection without traveling through a life lived with brilliant and startling observations—the natural world, our beloved pets and other friends, marriages, loss, joy, and yearning are all on full display in this potent work. There is a cinematic, vibrant, and redeeming quality to this collection. I could not help but feel a sense of revelation and completion but also desire for more of this poet when I hit the last page.

—Carla Rachel Sameth, author of Secondary Inspections