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The remarkable thing about Marjorie Moorhead’s poetry is that it is so uplifting, positive and hopeful given the challenges life has thrown her way thus far. Marjorie has survived two (count’em, two) major epidemics, the AIDS epidemic of the 80s and 90s, and the more recent COVID pandemic. And while surviving, she has watched friends and loved ones succumb in both outbreaks. Yet she has not only survived, but persisted in writing memorable poetry. “The first poem, “Fields and Verges”, in Marjorie Moorhead’s debut full-length poetry collection, Every Small Breeze (Kelsay Books, 2023), aptly sets the tone for the book. The poem is filled with creative rhyme, vivid description of the natural world, color, and sound. The poem is an ode to weed flowers and names a dozen of them. “Soothing water feeds the weed flowers. Possibly they need it most….” And the color: “Shout out your yellows, pinks, purples and blues.” Marjorie writes from the heart. It’s a heart that’s been wounded along the way, but the poet persists, she perseveres. We all struggled through the COVID pandemic, and wrote poems in response. But COVID was Marjorie’s second pandemic rodeo and her experience in the AIDS crisis, makes her COVID poems more poignant. These poems are universal and deeply personal at the same time. The poem “All of a Sudden” is a carpe diem call to make the most of each day as we never know how short our time may be. “Just like that, leaves are red in swaths … All of a sudden, it’s cold in morning’s hush … Just like that, sun seems precious … All of a sudden, t-shirts aren’t enough” … Then the clincher: “Just like that my little blond-haired boys look like men.” Marjorie experiments with both rhyme and form. “Colored Birds Bouquet” is a triolet with longer than usual lines. And “East Thetford, VT” has three line stanzas alternating with three word lines. “Relationship with land can be just a road claimed with each footstep. You know it because you walk it. Repetition; observation; devotion.” Marjorie’s rhyme schemes are endlessly inventive. The poem “Rat-a-Tat Rain” is an example. I was going to quote the whole poem, but I want you to buy the book. Here’s part of the scheme: abcb, defe, ggh, hii, iij...and that’s just the first five stanzas! Moorhead can write a protest poem without preaching at the reader, which is not that easy to do. “Before It Goes, Remember” is an excellent example. It starts: “Remember when you could sleep at the end of the day, with expectation that upon rise, our world would be okay”. And my favorite poem in the collection is “Ovine”, another not-so-subtle protest. “We sheep … Followers. A flock of followers; we clomp where directed. A herd. Have you heard? Our group is being trimmed. Those at the periphery. The un-able, unstable ones pushed to the outside, sheared off to the wayside. Our directors do this. …” All I can say is, I wish I had written that. The only thing I wished different for the book is for it to be sectioned. There are sixteen poems in the book that directly or indirectly respond to the COVID epidemic. I wished for them to be cordoned off into their own section. And if they had been published together as a chapbook, it may have been prize worthy. I found seventy plus poems without a break here and there, a little white space for a breather, just a little intimidating. A nearly blank page here and there enumerating three or four sections would have been welcomed. But I nitpick... Every Small Breeze is an excellent read, rewarding poetry, and an achievement any poet would be proud of. Do yourself a favor and read this book.