The Dark's Humming

The poems in The Dark's Humming find countless ways to settle in your bones, and then in the deepest parts of the psyche. In this collection, poet Megan Merchant, exquisitely brings us to the ledge of ourselves, in intricate ways. There are resonant poems about the delicate and remarkable journey of motherhood. The poet's images and language show us how to walk carefully among the realities of our own shadows. The works guide us to the undiscovered rooms of our own stories, and how to find the symphonies within. Merchant finds ways to intertwine the complexities of mother earth to those tied to her own relationship with her children and her family. We are taken to lilacs in a flood, to birds and branches and the "just tilled earth." By immersing yourself in these poems, you will be "diligent in keeping your body's promise./The only thing it could reasonably desire would be to stay filled."

-- Connie Post
Poet Laureate Emerita of Livermore, CA 2005 to 2009
Author of Floodwater, winner of the 2014 Lyrebird Prize