From movie making to medical misadventures, meditations on widowhood to feminist protestations, Expectation Days is a dazzling portrayal of instances in Sandra McPherson’s life. Her autobiographical collection uses peculiar and exact language to reflect on a wide range of activities that include grouse hunting, going through airport security after 9/11, and climbing a coastal cliff. From being an unintended child to ceremonializing a lifetime “served,” McPherson speaks in both clear and distressing voices from the state of speechless fear that is bereavement.

     Will the little figures ever reach the monument?

A doctor orders me to be on watch.

     Will the mist pass over their cheeks

     and clear the strollers’ eyes?

If so, I’ll see it. I’m on watch.

I train my eyes on paintings

to see if there is any change.

--from “On Suicide Watch”

Sandra McPherson is a professor of English at the University of California, Davis, and the author of numerous poetry collections, including A Visit to Civilization.

"In the completeness of her description—tender, shocking, hilarious—McPherson’s Expectation Days leaves the stuffy woolens of inhibition locked behind closed doors, preferring to dance outdoors in a gauzy linen dress, letting the sun trace her silhouette, in all its beauty and misery.”--Sacramento News & Review

"McPherson . . . stands in a sort of magic circle and conjures up a world I am glad to be part of. . . . A poet among us who deserves more readers, more homage, more celebration."--Field