Jewel Box is an exquisite trove of the intimacy and intricacies of daily life. I found myself wanting to sift through this collection slowly, to return again and again to bask in its quiet moments and marvel over Annie Powell Stone’s unique ability to capture the pain and pleasure in life’s pauses. Against the clamor and chaos of our current time, these poems are a deep breath, a warm hug, “heart-achingly beautiful / gifts” that compel you to look more closely at your own life to discover the vast landscape of small treasures hidden beneath the surface. “What beauty can be found?” Stone asks repeatedly in Jewel Box. This collection is the answer to its own question and I am so grateful to Stone for sharing her bounty with us.
Claire Taylor, author of April and Back Again
Annie Powell Stone’s Jewel Box captures in words the magic of the mundane that surprises the soul during those quietest of moments.
Todd Gray, PhD University of Southern Mississippi
In Jewel Box, Annie Powell Stone seeks a new (old) perspective: the childlike wonder that sees each “tiny true moment” as a gem to hold and treasure. As the poems unfold over the course of a day, she examines the small moments in motherhood to make sense of the world and find her fullest self. The refrain “What beauty can be found?” directs her attention—and readers’—to the glimmers in everyday life: her son’s light-up shoe, wildflower bouquets, a sunset. Stone’s poems shine as brightly as the beauty she writes about. These gentle, hopeful poems provide the “sweet warmth of connection” that we all too often overlook. By collecting “the beautiful minutiae of this absurd life” in Jewel Box, Stone nudges readers to look for the tiny miracles in our own day to day.
Carolina VonKampen,
freelance book editor and Capsule Stories publisher and editor-in-chief
Annie Powell Stone (she/her) is a fan of peanut butter toast. She uses poetry as ballast while navigating life. Her poetry has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Her first chapbook, Hampden Wildlife: Reflections on the Nature of a Baltimore City Neighborhood, was published by Bottlecap Press, Summer 2023. She lives on the ancestral land of the Piscataway and Susquehannock people with her husband and two kiddos in Baltimore City, MD.