I haven’t had the opportunity to blurb a book in a while, so I was delighted when Annie Powell Stone, a poet I worked with and whose work I published at Capsule Stories, asked me to blurb her latest poetry chapbook, Jewel Box. I enjoyed the chapbook so much that after writing the blurb, I expanded it into a longer poetry chapbook review.
If you enjoy this review of Jewel Box by Annie Powell Stone, please support her work by purchasing a copy of the chapbook from dancing girl press.
About the Author: Annie Powell Stone
Annie Powell Stone (she/her) is a fan of peanut butter toast. She uses poetry as ballast while navigating life. Her poetry has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
Her newest chapbook, Jewel Box, was published in 2026 by dancing girl press & studio; her chapbook Hampden Wildlife: Reflections on the Nature of a Baltimore City Neighborhood was published by Bottlecap Press in 2023. Annie’s poetry has been featured in numerous literary journals, including Nurture Literary and The Sunlight Press.
She lives on the ancestral land of the Piscataway and Susquehannock people with her husband and two kiddos in Baltimore City, Maryland. Follow her work at anniepowellstone.com.
Jewel Box by Annie Powell Stone Review
In Jewel Box, Annie Powell Stone seeks a new (old) perspective: the childlike wonder that sees each “tiny true moment” as a gem to hold and treasure.
She establishes the chapbook’s meta narrative in the opening (and titular) poem, “Jewel Box.” She reflects on what she’s lost from childhood: that sense of physical proximity to “the small moments among leaves” and curiosity. In the last stanza of “Jewel Box,” Stone vows:
So I’m stopping and stooping to find again:
a jewel box of tiny true moments
gathered together
to glimmer.
The following poems captures one of those “tiny true moments,” and Stone places them in her Jewel Box to share with us.
The chapbook is made up of thirteen poems, with seven poems with timestamp titles—4:40am all the way up to 9:18pm—giving the sense that we’re peering over Stone’s shoulder as she goes about a day in her life. As the poems unfold over the course of a day, she examines the small moments in motherhood to make sense of the world and find her fullest self. The refrain “What beauty can be found?” directs her attention—and readers’—to the glimmers in everyday life: her son’s light-up shoe, wildflower bouquets, a sunset.
And it’s in those small moments and glimmers that Stone finds her fullest self. She introduces this idea in “Advice from the Moon”:
[the moon] called on the soft parts of me
to shine.
“see?” she beckoned
“I am perfect because I am showing
my full self.”
Stone’s soft parts show in the moments in “Racing” where, after watching her sons race to the road, she reflects:
You cannot prove your love to children
by wearing yourself out
And when she wanders around her house in “Trinkets,” holding objects:
while I talk to myself
and make sense of the world
or laugh at how I cannot.
And when she ponders “I don’t know whether to celebrate or surrender” in “I will keep cleaning the glass.”
Finally, as Stone reaches bedtime in “Dreaming in Verse,” she rejoices that her poet’s voice—a soft part of her self—is still with her, talking or whispering or singing as she dreams:
I heard my poet’s voice
while falling asleep
and was glad
she is not gone.
Stone’s poems shine as brightly as the beauty she writes about. These gentle, hopeful poems provide the “sweet warmth of connection” that we all too often overlook, too busy with worry and fatigue. By collecting “the beautiful minutiae of this absurd life” in Jewel Box, Stone nudges readers to look for the tiny miracles in our own day to day.
This poetry chapbook will appeal to readers looking for poetry about slow living and savoring life’s moments to the fullest. Stone’s poetry encourages us to slow down. Take a moment to consider the poem, to consider this little break from your hectic life, and to find joy in both the poetry and your ordinary but beautiful life.
Intrigued?
Buy Jewel Box by Annie Powell Stone directly from dancing girl press or below from Bookshop.org.
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