Francine Sterle is the author of Nude in Winter (Tupelo Press, 2007), Every Bird is One Bird (Editor’s Prize, Tupelo Press, 2001), and The White Bridge (Poetry Harbor, 1999). “The Way Back” is from her new collection, tentatively entitled What Thread?, about the difficult, labyrinthine journey one takes following a profound loss. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Ploughshares, The North American Review, Poetry International and Nimrod and have been anthologized in Written on Water, Letters to the World , To Sing Along the Way, The Cancer Poetry Project and 33 Minnesota Poets.

‍