Ecstasy Will Have to Do is Aspen’s third book. This book of poems honors the depth and passion of all feelings related to being a human being here on earth. Aspen expresses the reverence and love that she feels for the natural world and the rhythms of life. Her poems reflect the strong belief that we are meant to transform and to reach for being the best that is possible, and they courageously ask the questions that must be explored.
Despite "the pressure of being a human being," Aspen Bernath-Plaisted is a hopeful writer, one who is a careful observer of both the human and natural worlds and who looks to make connections between them. Whether it is excitement about a pair of purple slippers, a cardinal glowing red on the branch of a dead tree at sunset, or monks chanting "until the inner and outer universes find each other," Bernath-Plaisted works to illustrate that "There always seem to be/two sides of a story": there may be grief, but there is also joy, there may be death but there are also "the tops of trees/inviting resurrection/as ultimately/resurrection lives in me."
-Anita Skeen, Director, RCAH Center for Poetry at MSU
