Moira Magneson's stunning first full-length poetry collection, In the Eye of the Elephant, is a constellation of lyric, narrative, and experimental poems whose subjects are the wild and the creatures that inhabit that space.
Rooted primarily in a Western landscape and infused with Buddhist notions of interconnection and impermanence, the book is divided into three parts, with the first exploring our paradoxical relationship to animals: our sometimes unbearable yearning to merge with their mystery alongside our inclination, conscious or not, to destroy them. The book then shifts its gaze to poems that spotlight human precarity, our frailties and shortcomings. In the final section, the aperture widens, revealing a more inclusive depth of field, while moving toward a growing acceptance of the dark and bright and coming to terms with the beautiful ruin of our imperfect world.
Over the years, Moira Magneson has worked as a river guide, artist's model, truck driver, television writer, editor, and community college writing instructor. A Northern California native, she lives in the Sierra foothills where she has spearheaded many art actions and initiatives, including El Dorado County's Poetry Out Loud Competition, Veterans' Voices, Barbaric Yawp, and Black Lives: An American Overture. In 2024, she was the resident poet for ForestSong, a community arts project exploring solastalgia, biophilia, and resilience in the face of wildfire devastation. Magneson is the author of A River Called Home: A River Fable, an illustrated novella (Toad Road Press, 2024). In the Eye of the Elephant is her first full-length collection of poems.
"Moira Magneson's In the Eye of the Elephant is an extraordinary collection of poems. I've rarely seen a book so exquisite in its centering of the natural world or in its honoring of the animal within us as well as those animals alongside us. Yet these poems are also dazzling and explosive in their reckonings with personal family wreckage, and so deeply moving, so deeply consoling in both their private and public grieving. Magneson writes, 'I praise Earth as it is, its holy cup my heaven.' What a timely balm this book will be to its readers, and what a treasure of visionary human compassion they will find." — David St. John, author of Prayer for My Daughter
"I am drawn to Moira Magneson's poems for the grime and gristle of their language—'elisions and plosives swept / piecemeal and stained // off the slaughterhouse floor'—for storytelling that stares pain in the face and delivers a hard-earned, unexpected beauty that is possible because of a clear-eyed placement in the natural world. This world is not romanticized but instead made wondrous through images that invite readers to consider their own station in the wild. In the Eye of the Elephant is rewarding on numerous levels; I'll come back to it again and again." — Albert Garcia, author of A Meal Like That
"As Moira Magneson rides an elephant's suffering deep into the forest, she explores the entire world through the creature's honest eye. She includes us on her journey as she closely observes minnow and mole, hippo and hound, talking with them, honoring them, and marveling at the miracle of their being. Magneson juxtaposes despair with hope and wisdom, leaving us with a deep connection to the natural world and to each other with the stillness of solace and the attentiveness of prayer." — Rose Black, author of Green Field
"Moira Magneson's In the Eye of the Elephant is amazing—filled with her many lives as well as the lives of people and animals she's known. With honesty and elegance, she writes of both the evil and good in the world. A loving, empathetic truth-teller, she's also a superb poet. Read this now!" — Susan Terris, author of Green Leaves
Rooted primarily in a Western landscape and infused with Buddhist notions of interconnection and impermanence, the book is divided into three parts, with the first exploring our paradoxical relationship to animals: our sometimes unbearable yearning to merge with their mystery alongside our inclination, conscious or not, to destroy them. The book then shifts its gaze to poems that spotlight human precarity, our frailties and shortcomings. In the final section, the aperture widens, revealing a more inclusive depth of field, while moving toward a growing acceptance of the dark and bright and coming to terms with the beautiful ruin of our imperfect world.
Over the years, Moira Magneson has worked as a river guide, artist's model, truck driver, television writer, editor, and community college writing instructor. A Northern California native, she lives in the Sierra foothills where she has spearheaded many art actions and initiatives, including El Dorado County's Poetry Out Loud Competition, Veterans' Voices, Barbaric Yawp, and Black Lives: An American Overture. In 2024, she was the resident poet for ForestSong, a community arts project exploring solastalgia, biophilia, and resilience in the face of wildfire devastation. Magneson is the author of A River Called Home: A River Fable, an illustrated novella (Toad Road Press, 2024). In the Eye of the Elephant is her first full-length collection of poems.
"Moira Magneson's In the Eye of the Elephant is an extraordinary collection of poems. I've rarely seen a book so exquisite in its centering of the natural world or in its honoring of the animal within us as well as those animals alongside us. Yet these poems are also dazzling and explosive in their reckonings with personal family wreckage, and so deeply moving, so deeply consoling in both their private and public grieving. Magneson writes, 'I praise Earth as it is, its holy cup my heaven.' What a timely balm this book will be to its readers, and what a treasure of visionary human compassion they will find." — David St. John, author of Prayer for My Daughter
"I am drawn to Moira Magneson's poems for the grime and gristle of their language—'elisions and plosives swept / piecemeal and stained // off the slaughterhouse floor'—for storytelling that stares pain in the face and delivers a hard-earned, unexpected beauty that is possible because of a clear-eyed placement in the natural world. This world is not romanticized but instead made wondrous through images that invite readers to consider their own station in the wild. In the Eye of the Elephant is rewarding on numerous levels; I'll come back to it again and again." — Albert Garcia, author of A Meal Like That
"As Moira Magneson rides an elephant's suffering deep into the forest, she explores the entire world through the creature's honest eye. She includes us on her journey as she closely observes minnow and mole, hippo and hound, talking with them, honoring them, and marveling at the miracle of their being. Magneson juxtaposes despair with hope and wisdom, leaving us with a deep connection to the natural world and to each other with the stillness of solace and the attentiveness of prayer." — Rose Black, author of Green Field
"Moira Magneson's In the Eye of the Elephant is amazing—filled with her many lives as well as the lives of people and animals she's known. With honesty and elegance, she writes of both the evil and good in the world. A loving, empathetic truth-teller, she's also a superb poet. Read this now!" — Susan Terris, author of Green Leaves
