Moments of Color and Cloud

poetry by Gloria Heffernan

Print (softcover): $17.95
 

To pay by check please use this order form.

We are pleased to take orders from retailers. Email us with details about your order or call us at 207-837-5760.

Poet Gloria Heffernan didn’t know she was starting to write a book when she wrote the poem “Moments of Color and Cloud.” She didn’t know that this poem would be a threshold into the complex landscape of aging. What followed were poems about loved ones for whom aging was a continued ripening into wisdom and fulfillment; poems about friends who were struggling with illness, isolation, and loss; poems about the joys and anxieties of her own aging process. Moments of Color and Cloud is neither a book about the despair and decay of aging nor a fairy tale about the joy of the golden years. Aging encompasses a wide variety of elements and is defined by a full spectrum of both color and cloud. This book explores the process of growing older in all its richness, difficulty, messiness, and beauty.

POETRY / General

ISBN: 978-1-962082-98-3 (print; softcover; perfect bound)

LCCN: 2026937362

Released March 24, 2026  |  Copyright 2026

106 pages

Author Biography

Gloria Heffernan is the author of three previous poetry collections, most recently Fused (Shanti Arts Publishing). Her craft book, Exploring Poetry of Presence (Back Porch Productions) won the CNY Book Award for Nonfiction. She has received the Naugatuck River Review Narrative Poetry Prize, and numerous Pushcart Prize nominations. Gloria is the author of the collections Peregrinatio: Poems for Antarctica (Kelsay Books), and What the Gratitude List Said to the Bucket List, (New York Quarterly Books). Her work has appeared in over 100 literary journals and anthologies. She is co-editor of the forthcoming anthology Now I Chant Old Age: Poems of Mindful Eldering, with Phyllis Cole-Dai. Gloria also teaches poetry workshops, facilitates writing retreats, and provides editorial consulting services. She lives in Syracuse, New York, with her husband, Jim, a lifelong academic who is the designated first-reader for all of her poems. To learn more, visit: www.gloriaheffernan.wordpress.com

Endorsements

“The meticulously arranged poems of Gloria Heffernan’s Moments of Color and Cloud paint for us an honest, tender portrait of aging. With levity and the presence of a poet working at the height of her powers, Heffernan points us not only toward the challenges that come with accruing more years, but also toward the many ‘miracles of growth’ we experience when we can approach the latter part of our lives—as well as the aging of family and friends—with both gratitude and grace. Each and every poem in this collection offers ‘a loving presence that says you are not alone.’”
—James Crews, author of Turning Toward Grief and Breathing Room

“In Moments of Color and Cloud, Gloria Heffernan paints a rich exploration of aging that reminds readers that all we endure leads to wisdom. This collection embraces hope and joy, while defying despair, as we build resilience in the face of life’s obstacles; an important reminder that duration is essential to a deep understanding of the human condition. Heffernan asks us to take life’s hardships ‘with a healthy sprinkle of gratitude.’”
—Mark Danowsky, Founder / Editor-in-Chief of ONE ART: a journal of poetry; author of Take Care

“Moments of Color and Cloud draws wisdom from lived experience and gratitude for our shared lives. Through gentle narrative poems, Heffernan guides readers into the inevitable path of aging through the familiar and everyday; from chin hairs and forgotten keys to helping a friend in a nursing home address holiday cards, and being present as another closes her art studio after an Alzheimer's diagnosis. She holds space for the colors of later life, honoring lives well lived. These poems ease us into the physical and emotional realities of aging with grace, balance, and joy. As Heffernan writes, ‘Perhaps gratitude is the very essence of grace.’”
—Annette Langlois Grunseth, author of Becoming Trans-Parent: One Family’s Journey of Gender Transition

News and Reviews