"In Catherine Abbey Hodges' Instead of Sadness the beauty is there as the bread of life, as the poems enter and grow in us-the kind of experience we come to expect in good poems-the feeling of "Ah yes, that's right." In classically beautiful and precise language, we are reminded again and again of what we didn't know we knew. They effect their changes in us subtly and steadily, convincing us that their perceptions and discoveries are our own-which, when we have given them our full attention, is exactly right. In the course of discovering her own experience in the unfolding of the poem she lets us in on the adventure; we believe we are experiencing her surprise at the poem's destination just as she is discovering it. And we know, at that moment, that we are the better for it. These are truly beautiful, finely honed poems"-- Dan Gerber.