Welcome, Stranger - by Melissa Weaver (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p>A reflective and intimate debut, <em>Welcome, Stranger </em>explores the radical act of hospitality that is parenting. It is a meditation on motherhood and faith- surprisingly sacred connections amidst the mundane. The collection is rich with memory, at turns amusing and contemplative, a study of child-rearing's ability to wear us down and enrich our lives with unexpected poignancy.</p><p><br></p><p>The poems flow from conception to the liminal space of pregnancy, through childbirth and nursing, to sleepless nights and crushing days, to reflections on adding multiple children and transitioning to toddlerhood, and to studies on the wonder and fear in watching our children grow toward launching into the outside world. A mother of three young children, the author allows the reader into the times that mark her expanding life, whether unexpected cesarean births ("5:06 AM"), bedtime battles ("10:16 PM"), or interrupted nights ("4:30 AM"), while also giving insight into her internal transformation.</p><p><br></p><p>The primary task of these poems is unearthing the whispers of the Divine among the chaos that is parenting. In poems like "Consolation," the author wonders if motherhood can be like art, science, or performance, a way to mine the glorious from the daily physicality of the baser tasks of caring for small children.</p><p><br></p><p>Rich in evocative images, the author uses Christian religious allusions and sacred texts to delve into how her faith both informs and is formed by the vocation of motherhood. Poems like "Alchemy," "Song and Shuttle," and "Icons" will remind the reader of incense filled churches and Latin masses, with the surprising context of messy parenting.</p><p><br></p><p>However informed by her devotion, the poems in this collection are not didactic but contemplative and relatable. Whether describing her experience with postpartum depression/anxiety in "Blue Heat" or laughing at the reality of less intimacy in "Dry Season," the author seeks to find beauty in the fragile state of being human while being in charge of fragile human beings.</p><p><br></p><p>The collection ends with poems that move toward the future. Poems like "Trinity Playground" and "Home-video Harbingers" ask if our children are prophets; "A Single Drop" and "Like Fine Red Veins" reflect on the limits and possibilities of faith being passed onto our children; and "Anatomy of An Arrow" looks ahead at the moment when what we've nurtured is released. The reader will be taken on a journey into the author's own experience but also invited to find glimmers of transcendence in his/her own lived reality.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br><p>In her debut collection, Melissa Weaver opens the doors to poems that are devout with grace and precision. Each word is crafted so carefully, like a rosary bead, or altar stone, for the reader to collect along the way until they are fully grounded in the world of motherhood and faith that the poet creates. Her ability to listen so deeply and pull poems from the most unlikely depths is startling. As she explains, "When I get on eye-level to find what fell from a diaper, I swear there must be a sonnet in here somewhere.". This is not only a lesson for the reader-how to pick from the body, stones and ash, to make a poem-but it also a journey where, along the way, "We fade", but as the poet promises, "in our breaking, there's an ember.".</p><p><strong>-Megan Merchant</strong>, author of <em>Before the Fevered Snow</em> (Stillhouse Press, 2020)</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Melissa Weaver's chapbook is a lovely reminder of the sweet destruction of motherhood. She deftly explores pregnancy ("I bear. An explosion."), nursing ("I am silk. / I am quilt."), sleeplessness ("you are three feet of eminent domain"), and the 24/7 nature of parenting ("too much, our days compressed"). A wonderful burst of memory and prophecy, all rolled into one!</p><p><strong>-Joann Renee Boswell</strong>, author of <em>Cosmic Pockets</em> (Fernwood Press, 2020)</p><p><br></p><br>
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