Zero Degrees

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Helen Marie Casey's "Zero Degrees" is a brave endeavor to remember victims of hatred, mayhem, and violence. The writer of this series embeds poems of remarkable strength and beauty in our consciousness. She makes international turmoil real and vivid to us, not as a journalist, but as a poet of intensity and empathy. This work is highly recommended not only to literature lovers but also to politicians, ethicists, historians, and students of international relations. It is protest poetry at its best because it never loses sight of its first priority: To imbue the lines of every one of these poems with the images, rhythms, patterns, and shape that make them art of the highest order. As witness to contemporary horrors, this series of poems is unflinching: By any measure, a remarkable achievement. Ms. Casey has previously created poetry chapbooks that centered on heroic women who gave their life for their beliefs, fifteenth-century Joan of Arc (Fragrance Upon His Lips, Finishing Line Press), and seventeenth-century Quaker martyr, Mary Dyer (Inconsiderate Madness, Black Lawrence Press, a finalist for the Julia Ward Howe Prize of the Boston Authors Club). She has also written a monograph, Portland's Compromise: The Colored School 1867-1872, and a biography, My Dear Girl: The Art of Florence Hosmer. She is at work on a sequel to this, The Florence Hosmer Story. She has won the 14th National Poet Hunt of The MacGuffin, judged by Thomas Lynch, and the Frank O'Hara Prize from The Worcester Review. Some of her Dyer poems have been converted into a song cycle performed twice in Montana. A former corporate communications specialist, Helen has taught literature and writing courses and has been active in civic affairs in New England with a focus on voters' services efforts and on historical preservation projects. She was the first president of the Metrowest Leadership Academy Alumni Association, served on her town's Finance Committee, and is active in the Boston Authors Club and the New England Poetry Club.