Sparks of Light Fly shares the full emotional range of a profoundly empathetic speaker wondering "what kind of night-time is it" when we live in a world of "constant pleas for miracles." These are poems of personal reclamation, social responsibility and belonging, connection with the Earth, hibiscus flowers and "Sister Ocean," and the urgency of injustice's many dimensions. "I am your beloved dancer," Scott writes. "In all directions // Light / Transforms." There is enough sweetness in these poems to face their sometimes-gutting, necessary truths. -Freesia McKee, Author of How Distant the City

Bookended by haiku in this collection Maria Elena Scott's poems ring with music, "sonorous roaring sounds," and pull you in like the waves of her many ocean odes. Her poems on injustice for families separated at the border, for survivors, among others display the poet's big heart. Nature runs throughout and the connection the poet makes as in "Fragile Beings Sacrificed," keeps you in a state of wonder. -Angela Trudell Vasquez, Author of My People Redux and Madison Poet Laureate 2020-2024