Stitches - Paperback

by Sarah Cummins Small (Author)

Stitches is a debut collection of 20 poems woven together to explore stories told, retold, or only whispered. It is a visceral contemplation of seasons of life and simple moments: a soldier tracing a well-loved photograph; a father's familiar hand skewering a slice of apple; a mother's grief as her son spits "her out like some bitter peel"; the final cry of a long life: "I am done."

Sprinkled throughout the collection are love songs to the natural world-a celebration of spaces where "tongues catch sunflakes" and fireflies explode in "white-hot disco ball frenzy." This is a world where readers can breathe deeply, where the "soporific potion" of the mountains eases tired souls. We are all invited to "unzip our stiff suits" and rest a while in beneath a canopy of green.

With evocative but accessible language and vivid imagery, the poet invites the reader to pause, find a comfortable spot to curl up, and step into a world that will feel a little like coming home. Each poem by itself is a slice of life-a snapshot capturing a single moment. Together, these poems create a "slipshod collage" of intimate but familiar moments stitched together to reveal the expanse of possibility: of lives well lived, of yearning, heartbreak, beauty, and legacy.