Mother Sauce, Dancing Girl Press, November 2022

“This book was created by a singular poet—death doula, legendary chef, geographer of women’s souls—who writes with a memorable voice. Gold’s spare version of magical realism leaves no syllable unturned. Deft, wise, and delicate, the poems of Mother Sauce are powerful recipes for wisdom and compassion.” --Annie Finch, author of Spells and A Poet’s Craft

“Thank you for these beautiful, haunting poems filled with the lives of women who experience the world and its losses, and its bounty, so deeply. I find humor here, too, and am struck by the questions you raise about tending and tenderness. “Requiem” is gorgeous, with that hypothetical: “If grief could catch fire…” Mother Sauce is a wonderful achievement…wry, despairing, and hopeful, all at once.”

--Catherine Barnett, author of Human Hours; The Game of Boxes, and Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced

“With a chef’s touch Rozanne Gold’s debut chapbook exquisitely gathers memory, loss, and boundless love into a shimmering bouquet garni. Gold is at once and by turns our guide, our charge, and our doula, leading us through grief and love, states of being – arranged together through the sensorial necessity of food.  With a keen eye for lush detail and an epic sweep, Gold offers process, where a recipe holds the future, where we grow memories older than water. Step into this kitchen. There is nourishment here.”

--Robert Balun, author of Acid Western and Traces

These spare, deceptively simple poems tease the senses, excavating bliss and loss in equal measure. Deftly exploring divinity, family, and ancestral community, Gold grapples with what it means to be motherless and childless, to center one’s life on creating communion. Throughout this gorgeous collection, “She thinks about the connection between tending to and being tender and bows down before her verdant altar.” Her work offers an unexpected feast after deep grief – & “taffy-wrapped heartache” followed by “breasts large ripe halved and seeded.” She reminds us that “salt makes sweet things sweeter.” Mother Sauce is spiritual nourishment.

--Barbara Schwartz, author of Any Thriving Root and co-author of Nothing but Light