Waking to other lives

This collection consists of forty-three poems that have been written over a ten-year period. The first section of the manuscript includes poems drawn from childhood memories and family stories, and moves to a more mature speaker who is assessing her place among both pleasant and unpleasant memories. The poems of the second section continue to trace this self-assessment as the speaker measures what is both present and missing in her life. The third section is largely set in the speaker's house, with family voices and expectations all around her. The fourth section is one of loss and separateness from the traditional family, but with the hope of rebirth into a different life. The speaker of the last section has a fully adult voice: she faces a new life with a new love, although her losses are very real, very deep. The pursuit of happiness that is so prevalent in the previous sections is now tempered with the realization that as our lives move forward, we also must leave others behind.