Poetry Says It Better

"A generous, heartfelt gift." — Kirkus (STARRED review) The legendary Academy Award–winning actress reflects on her love affair with poetry and makes us all believers. We all want inspiration. We want to feel connected to something universal. And we want to be able to share that wonder with friends and loved ones. In this beautiful volume, Ellen Burstyn celebrates poetic magic and shares her favorite works. Now into her nineties, Ellen reveals she had an evangelical response to learning poetry even as a child and would memorize and recite the works of Edna St Vincent Millay to envelope herself in the poet’s deeper emotional landscape. As Burstyn continued her epic rise through film and theater—eventually winning an Oscar, a Tony, a BAFTA, and an Emmy—poetry gave voice to her experience as no other literary art form could. She never went anywhere without her curated “poetry pack.” While waiting on set, in rehearsal, on a train, or just relaxing, she found comfort in verse.