Alicia Hugg’s fifth book, Until the Silence, mesmerizes. dazzles, enchants. Her balanced, affirmative poems do not sentimentalize the lives we live, yet they affirm the very act of living. A number of poems end on the cusp of another, better world that we might yet achieve. She is attuned to nature, animals, humans—they all balance one another. Her words are invariably musical, and she makes skillful use of rhyme, something seldom seen in the contemporary poetry world. She interweaves personal events with history: the death of Colin Powell, the aftermath of the pandemic join the deep loss of her daughter and grandson. She rises ending by announcing “I am energy light. love”.

Susan E. Gunther, Ph.D, English Professor Emerita

Be Music Night

Be music night

Sing twinkles stars

Trill streams of light

Arpeggios of dreams

Choruses of moonbeams

Let harmonies flow

That sound touches hearts

Lifts faltering spirits

To tomorrow's promise.