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Rain to Root - by Kim Birdsong (Paperback)
About this item
Highlights
- In this debut collection of poems, Kim Birdsong explores the often fierce and disorienting landscape of grief.
- Author(s): Kim Birdsong
- 146 Pages
- Poetry, Subjects & Themes
Description
About the Book
In the year following the death of her son, poet Kim Birdsong turned toward writing to try to cope with the depth of her sadness and to come to terms with the unavoidable truth of impermanence. Her raw and honest poetry follows her journey.
Book Synopsis
In this debut collection of poems, Kim Birdsong explores the often fierce and disorienting landscape of grief. In the year following the death of her son, Kim turned toward writing to try to cope with the depth of her sadness and to come to terms with the unavoidable truth of impermanence. Her raw and honest poetry follows her journey from the first moments of pain and despair, through a period of questioning, adjustment and reorientation, and finally to revelation and acceptance.
Through these accessible verses, Kim invites readers into the dark soul territory of grief to join her on this journey. As she takes up this apprenticeship with sorrow, she tracks her inner landscape, becoming curious and paying close attention to its shifting contours and pairs this with her abiding love of the landscape. These efforts lead her through this dark terrain as she slowly gains footing on new ground.
You will hear a full range of expression and emotion-from sadness and frustration to anger and confusion and gratitude-contained in variety of forms from lyric and free verse to letter poems, list poems, structured verse and haiku. You will also feel the grace that comes from bowing to what is alive in the depths of this mother's heart.
Review Quotes
In the face of a loss no parent can fathom, Kim reveals the complexities of a living grief path. Her poetry invites us along, poignantly stimulating deep resonance with being human. This book is a companion for anyone navigating the tumultuous seas of loss, reminding us that in the shared human experience of grief, we are never truly alone.
- Jennifer Allen, LMFT, ATR-BC
author of Boneknowing
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Kim Birdsong's poems in Rain to Root gently, relentlessly pierce through the veils of illusion that cloud our hearts from the reality of impermanence. With probing compassion and courageous curiosity, she reveals in real-time the naked truth: in this life where everything we love will indeed be lost, our deep hearts burn with the twin powers of grief and grace. By allowing herself to be reduced and alchemized by her own specific, inescapable grief, and being generously visible in the process, Kim offers us the invitation at the core of every moment, including this one: Wake up! Feel it all! Love fiercely and let go.
- Brooke McNamara
poet & author of Feed Your Vow & Bury the Seed;
Zen teacher, priest, & lineage holder
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In Rain to Root, Kim Birdsong leads us through the changing terrains of grief. In the first poem, she writes, "Let yourself be unpeeled, unhinged, unmade, unsure." Such impossible invitation. And yet poem after poem, heart stretched wide by loss, she shows us how we might go from praying to becoming the prayer itself. These poems are a testament to transformation, an inspiration, a gift.
- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
author of The Unfolding and All the Honey,
and host of The Poetic Path