upon waking - Paperback

by Margaret Bleichman (Author)

In upon waking, language and etymology, silences and erasure emerge in poems whose subjects range from ancestral rituals and family histories to soulful meditations on soup. A valley is submerged, a mountain lion reemerges, a Girl Scout's self-respect is torn down, then rebuilt. An opioid overdose is reconciled, plantation narratives contrasted, a thunderstorm is enacted, a flower forgives.

Many of the poems in this book are informed by Bleichman's lived experience as a first-generation Jewish American with immigrant/refugee/survivor parents. They investigate the experiences of people in different diasporic, displaced, and suppressed communities. Bleichman also writes in response to social and political complexities in our current world.Intergenerational trauma, the experience of the other and resilience run throughout much of the book. In upon waking, readers will find poetic grit and redemption.