In Wise to the West, Wendy Videlock embraces her Western terrain and surroundings—family, neighbor, barbershop, morning shower, coyote, badger, wolf, blackbird, hawk, canyon, mesa, mountain—with songs, odes, witticisms, lamentations. Along the way, she tilts toward the grand view of the world around—relaying turns of uncertainty or affirmation, history or the latest news, myths and the mystic—and gifting us musings and meditations in her unique style full of quirks, wit, wisdom, and surprising turns. In Wise to the West, Videlock delivers yet another inspired and delightful collection.

Here in the west, whatever
one’s pain,
one never complains
about the rain.
What’s good for the plains is bad for harvest.
What freezes in spring
is sugar-beet borrowed.
The river depletes.
The groves expire.
What blooms
in summer is wildfire.