Marriage Maps and Driven Destinies

Mary Sexson and Lylanne Musselman connected quickly and became poetry sisters. This joint book leads the reader down two different paths the authors have walked. As you meander through the pages you will find tears and joy, fear and anticipation, life and death. This book leads you down a self-reflective arc where you will find hope in good times and bad.

Despite having traveled very different paths, Mary Sexson and Lylanne Musselman remind us in Marriage Maps and Driven Destinies that the people we journey with profoundly impact our paths and purposes. The poets' talents for imagery and analogy place us in fast cars driving Indiana roads after curfew and sitting in waiting rooms reflecting on mortality-raw and relatable vignettes resonating of hardship, heartache, and tenderness. Poems illustrate how our choices when navigating threats, for better or worse, prepare us to survive and find joy in what might feel routine or mundane. Independence comes from boldly taking the wheel and learning when to stop and ask for directions. Sexson and Musselman's collection explores relationships that shape and bind us: those we cherish and those we must forgive.

Liz Whiteacre

Author of Hit the Ground and founder of Etchings Press

From cancer to cars, love to longing, the collected poems of Marriage Maps and Driven Destinies remind us that wisdom, too, is a journey, not a destination. It is the journey of this book.

Sexson's poems speak with a delicate but honest self-examination. Her husband's cancer diagnosis shapes some of her most revealing and insightful poems. Love, fear and grueling uncertainty bring home the ultimate truth of a long marriage.

Musselman's robust voice takes us back to the fast cars and AM radio of smalltown Indiana. While they convey a sense of isolation and loneliness, her poems have a humor and humanity that meets life head on. "Not one to fear the dark", she travels the winding roads that ultimately bring her closest to home.

Liz Hughes Wiley

Poet, educator, and event planner.

Wiley planned the memorable tribute

to George Hitchcock, famous editor of the poetry journal Kayak