Green is the color of beginnings, of memory and regeneration, of the "fluid arc of what has been, / forever becoming us." John Blair's debut poetry collection, The Green Girls, takes the reader on a journey through life as it explores such subjects as marriage, family, and sex. Written in several voices, from husband and wife, brother and sister, young and old, the poems remind us that paradise "doesn't invite us back." Although filled with sadness and pain, Blair's elegantly written free years resonates with a quiet optimism even while discussing losses and lapses that give life both its terror and its potential for redemption.