Betsy Hughes has earned applause for her mastery of poetic form in earlier books. With this latest collection her status as a notable voice has been affirmed. The poems about grief, particularly, are among the most moving I've ever read. Those about climate crisis are stark and sobering. And the brilliantly conceived and realized final section conjures the spirit of Emily Dickinson flawlessly. The Sixth Sense of Loss earns the reader great profit.

-Lawrence E. Hussman, author of Pre-Posthumous Poems and Last Things

In these deftly crafted formal poems, mostly sonnets, Betsy Hughes reveals a luminous vision of art, nature, love, loss, and, in the end, hope. It is inspiring. In the title poem, she reflects on the simultaneous presence and absence of her husband, seeing him and not seeing him, smelling his aftershave, and cooking dinner the two of them enjoyed. Her work calls on us to savor life and love, and she shows us how to do just that.

-David Lee Garrison, author of Light in the River and Carpeing the Diem