Solving for X, Spartan Press 2022, $15, was released this Spring. Maryfrances Wagner's newest much anticipated  volume is now avaialable through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  

Wagner is now about halfway through her tenure as the Poet Laureate of Missouri, and Solving for X proves she isn't slowing down despite the trials of quarantine and her ever growing To Do list. I own all her books, so I couldn't wait to read it. I love the accessibility of her poems, their range, their humanity and wit, and her courage in talking of things that can be hard to talk about. Through a career as a high school English teacher, she's been dedicated to making others fall in love with poetry, too.

My favorites are poems about her students, both tragic and hilarious, and those about her colorful Italian family. She also includes more nature poems in this collection because she's been staying out of public like the rest of us and hiking through the woods. But she doesn't stop there. All those years of hearing "What do I write?" from students filled her coffer with ideas. We get some relief from a few gut-wrenching poems by zeroing in on something small using brilliant metaphor and description: the beauty of a pomegranate, the super powers of yarrow, the heat of August. "Only the dog comes in / smelling of sunlight." Wagner even illustrated her own book with quirky collages. It's a bit surprising that she doesn't write more ekphrastic poetry, but she brings her own slant to what ekphrastic means when she describes her vision before and after in "Cataract Surgery." (She uses "we" because she's describing all the patients lined up on gurneys.)

"...Over in seven minutes, we awake, wobbly,

and step from the amber varnish of a dark

Rembrandt, into the new blue of a Hockney morning

where seeing is believing in all of its bright white."

     ⏤Alarie Tennille, author of Three A.M. at

          the Museum

Solving for X reveals a poet, image by dazzling image, trying to solve the old equation of what makes a life worth living. Textured and quirky in the best way, these poems of lovers, family, and the natural world are full of the beauty of a life well-lived, with all the questions still open.

          Catherine Anderson The Work of Hands

In much of Solving for X, Maryfrances Wagner focuses on memory, childhood to recent-without the sticky lacquer of nostalgia. In lines that are fresh, precise, and musical, her eye for evocative detail includes the dark as well as the light. She often discovers "fabulous realities" within the commonplace. Her empathy, with plants and animals as well as people, keeps her vision free of self-absorption-a refreshing turn from a current trend of poets obsessing on their victimhood. And these poems invite the reader in rather than coyly turning their backs. It's an invitation that offers considerable rewards.

          William Trowbridge, author of Call Me Fool

Nietzsche famously said, "The devil is in the details." If that's true, move over Mephisto. In Maryfrances Wagner's new book, Solving for X, truth too lies in the details, and Wagner is an expert at telling truth. Honest and unblinking, she tells stories so real they come alive on the page. So clear her vision, so close to the bone, we know for sure we are not among the angelic orders with their harps and halos. There's too much toughness here, too much down-to-earth life, fierce, raw, and uncompromising. A devilishly good read.

           Alice Friman, author of Blood Weather

"I'm from red sauce, garlic, and fig trees," writes Maryfrances Wagner. An Italian world re-created in Kansas City is her childhood, and this informs her rich poetry filled with wry humor and wisdom. She tells stories, describes recipes, weddings, wine club, and family card games. The poet amplifies attractive and accessible moments with original, surprising language. She blends story and song masterfully. Solving for X might be my favorite book from this talented writer-so far!

          Denise Low, 2007-2009 Kansas Poet Laureate and winner  

                   of the Red Mountain Press Editor's Choice Award

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