Alms Basket For Your Heart

This chapbook has a gorgeous, tactile design. The poems are concise and grounded snapshots of the world displayed through all five senses. The heavy and deep language is contrasted by the author’s light and charming artwork. Ordinary objects such as a cup of coffee, a brick, a cell phone, are transformed into metaphysical representations of the poet’s being. These are straightforward poems that express a complex person. It’s truly remarkable how Mackenzie Moore is able to associate such simple items with such complicated states of mind. You’ll want to return to these poems again and again.

—Sean Lynch, Editor-in-Chief at Serotonin

“‘because an optimist: / is salaried on overestimating’, ’Alms-Basket for Your Heart’ is a poetry chapbook with coloured illustrations by Mackenzie Moore. The verses trace the different stages of a relationship, from the fragile excitement of the first meeting, to moments where vulnerabilities and discordances are exposed, plans made and discarded, hopes built and later dismantled like so many shelves in one’s imagined or real shared home, until, when paths have parted, one examines what remains, regrets, remembers, and, finally, recovers. It is a tender little book and a reminder that, yes, not all dreams come true, but that doesn’t mean we should stop dreaming.”

—Marie Isabel Matthews-Schlinzig, Poet

Alms is a showcase of Mackenzie Moore’s melancholic power to tease heartache narrative out of quotidian objects of newfound fascination. “10%”, “Emergen-C”, “Pavers”, and “Change Your Sheets on Sunday” were treasures to read and reread. It’s a testament to the power of the chores that shape our lives and the meaning we give them upon reflection.

—Nathan Dennis, Editor-in-Chief at Wine Cellar Press