In April 2013, just five months after being named the first Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, Eloise had a brain injury resulting in Wernicke’s aphasia―a breakdown in the symbol system of language. Poetry was the guide and motivation for recovery. This collection is comprised of a series of five-line poems that began as a focusing exercise yet transformed into a remarkable channel for her creativity. These poems are filled with the same features that have pervaded her work, meaning they are serious, at times playful, sometimes beautiful and sometimes “goofy.” But all have that twist, that meaningful point, that is unique to Eloise’s consciousness. "'A Wild Surmise' shows Healy to be a disciplined, polished poet with a vision that's unfailingly open and generous. As Healy cares for the people close to her, or mourns them, her emotions take residence in the city's natural and built environments, landscapes that feel at once exotic and familiar, cruel and welcoming."-- Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times "'A Wild Surmise' shows Healy to be a disciplined, polished poet with a vision that's unfailingly open and generous. As Healy cares for the people close to her, or mourns them, her emotions take residence in the city's natural and built environments, landscapes that feel at once exotic and familiar, cruel and welcoming."— Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times Featured in Pacifica Literary Review Eloise Klein Healy , Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing Emerita at Antioch University Los Angeles, is the author of seven books of poetry: The Islands Project: Poems For Sappho (Red Hen Press 2007); Passing (Red Hen Press 2002); Artemis in Echo Park (Firebrand 1991); Ordinary Wisdom (Red Hen Press 2005); A Packet Beating Like a Heart (Books of a Feather 1981); and Building Some Changes (Beyond Baroque 1976). The newest, Another Phase , will be published by Red Hen in Spring 2018. Healy's work is widely anthologized in collections such as California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present; The World in Us: Lesbian and Gay Poetry of the Next Wave; and Another City: Writing from Los Angeles. Healy is the founder of Antioch University's MFA in Creative Writing program and the founder of Arktoi Books, an imprint of Red Hen Press specializing in the work of lesbian authors. Healy is the co-founder of Eco-Arts, an ecotourism/arts venture.