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Where we Nest
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The poetic thought in these poems is never out of date and quite appealing to all readers. These poems show extraordinary and eloquent phrases. REVIEWS
Christine Redman-Waldeyer’s newest poetry collection is a journey through many nests: the habitats of robins and sparrows, the empty space of children grown and fathers gone, the shelter we seek from COVID. Luminous and evocative, the poems describe a landscape of diving shorebirds and rising ghosts, and sometimes ghosts who have become birds. Through lucid images and emotive language, the poems paint a complex world full of pain, beauty, grace, and loss. The power of these poems lies in the back-and-forth between the search for beauty and meaning and the discovery that there are only questions and no real answers. Reading this book is like finding a nest of one’s own, a beautiful sanctuary to which I will return again and again. —Nancy Gerber, Ph.D., author of We Are All Refugees Where We Nest invites readers to a top-tier vantage point where we find ourselves peering into an intricately woven nest, exploring the idea of home and its changing nature over time. Each poem hatches a hidden truth. The poet, for example, presents the paradox of being free only while wearing a face mask during the Coronavirus pandemic, hypocrisy in our school children’s birthday party invitations, profound personal loss inherent in our community’s economic progress, and nostalgia for the insouciant days of a 1950s jukebox and grilled cheese sandwich, “heavy on the cheese.” Christine’s fine book gives the gifts of satisfaction, surprise, and scope. Satisfaction stems from the sweet bird songs and flutters that permeate the work. Surprise stems from the shocking hand that rears, on the window glass, mystifying the reader for a while until the ominous hand reappears late in the book, the chandelier’s/lights flickered,” brilliantly unifying it. The scope stems from the crossing of generational lines, such that we see where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going, despite that continuum of unexpected challenges, that deep dive of the cormorant. The vantage point of this book allows us to see ourselves more clearly and to more fully experience the very beat of life. —Marsha Mathews, author of Beauty Bound In Where We Nest, Redman-Waldeyer writes poignantly about the joys and demands of home and family that nurture and challenge her. She explores her own heritage and her own home place along the Jersey Shore in all its natural beauty, even as she bears witness to the brutal power of the ocean. Redman-Waldeyer is a vulnerable, resilient poet who invites the reader to know the people and places she loves. With an eagle eye for detail, her poems consider quiet comforts and complicated losses that call us to consider our own legacy. Her connection to the land and sea, to the trials and delights of the home place pervade this collection, even in the poems that take her away from home. No moment in this poet's day is too small to escape her gaze. Redman-Waldeyer has created a replica of place where she has planted her roots and grown her wings—a place where her readers can nest. —Lynne McEniry, author of some other wet landscape In Where We Nest, Christine Redman-Waldeyer offers a poignant collection of poems that consistently mediate the external landscapes of her experience with the internal terrain that drives her and each of us to understand what makes us who we are. These poems embody a sustained vision of where our search can find completeness, so aptly found in the books title—Where We Nest. —R.G. Rader, author of Kicking the Rain, founding editor of Muse-Pie Press |
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