Poetry. NATURAL DEFENSES is about love and loss. It is a kind of tone poem where the music of the words and flow of ideas is meant to carry the reader from the first poem "What Has Been Lost" to the final poem "Who Can Convince the Sea to be Reasonable?" To her work, Ms. Terris brings not only a depth of perception but intellect, humor, and a touch of the surreal. These poems reflect a woman in mid-life looking backwards as well as at the present; yet the book is also an outward journey examining the world at large, a book about the joys and sadness of all lives as works-in-progress.
