What Flies Away tells the story in poetry of the author’s mother’s descent into Alzheimer’s, her father’s sudden death and the miracle of her daughter’s birth. Campanella received the Poet Laureate Award twice for two poems "The Chase" and "How to Grieve," both of which are included in the collection.


In Ann Campanella’s remarkable new book of poems, “What Flies Away” is literally life itself, and the people and animals in it who we love. The mother is struck with Alzheimer’s, the father dies, a beloved horse is put down, the narrator turns forty and feels her own life flying away, and then a baby is born, a miraculous red-headed girl who gives life back not only to the parents but to her grandmother, and of course, to the reader. We are riveted to these poems, as step by step we experience the loss, the grief, the mourning, and then the astounding resurrection. It’s a book to read and read again. Every poem in the book is part of the journey, and the journey changes the reader. This is what poetry is about.

- Anthony S. Abbott, author of The Man Who

Here are poems of profound and powerful feeling. A careful craftsmanship controls the painful emotions and lends them shape and force. This is strong work indeed and I recommend the work of Ann Campanella to every lover of poetry. Enviable for its strength, it is equally enviable for its grace. This poet has mastered a delicate and dangerous balance.

- Fred Chappell, former Poet Laureate of North Carolina

These poems…are essentially elegies written in advance. They are clear-sighted and unsentimental; at the same time, they are full of sentiment. I look forward to more of Ann Campanella’s work.

- Maxine Kumin, excerpt from an essay in Chelsea 67

This book is available at Main Street Books in Davidson or can be ordered by clicking here.
Now available on Kindle too. Click here for Kindle version.

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