The poems in What Matters are powerful, haunting transcriptions of a realized life. Intimate rather than private, these poems are a lyrical fusion of joy and the tragic as they travel through memory, illness, and survival and lead to a clear-sighted embrace of life as it is. Tinged with edginess, the poems in What Matters are characterized by immediacy and a celebratory expansiveness. Adele Kenny is a wordsmith; her meticulously crafted poems touch the reader with pathos, humor, and hard-won wisdom.