Book Review: The Heart’s Necessities: Life in Poetry by Jane Tyson Clement with Becca Stevens

I fell in love with Jane Tyson Clement’s poetry the first time I held it in my hand. Then I opened it and read the soft, soothing words she’d written that perfectly mimic the seaside she loved so well. I read them over and over, a warm comfort in any season.

Reading The Heart’s Necessities just gave me more reasons to love Jane Tyson Clement.

Becca Steven’s collection of Clement’s poetry with the addition of lovely photographs taken by Clement’s son would be delightful in and of itself. Stevens added to this her own stories and reflections on Clements poems as well as biographical information on Clement. Knowing more about Clement’s life only deepened the meaning of the poetry I already loved.

Being a native Jersey Girl who spent summer vacations at the Jersey Shore, it’s no wonder that I immediately fell in love with Clement’s poetry. Now, in a collection that includes snapshots of the beaches I wandered as a child with the words I’ve come to cherish as an adult, Stevens has captured all I loved about Clement in an endearing love letter for us all to treasure.