Rewoven in the Dew - Paperback

by Elizabeth O'Rourke (Author)

Elizabeth O'Rourke has written a book of poems that makes me cry for the kindness and difficulty of a lived life. This is a book filled with reminders of how to keep loving no matter what. That she does this quietly without scold or pity is just one of the glories of these poems. The rest is their music like a country reel, their knowing like bread broken and shared among friends.

-Victoria Redel, author, I Am You

Intimate, honest, and clear-eyed as that of the needle she threads to mend her daughter's coat, O'Rourke's poems weave love, marriage, motherhood, and self-discovery across life's grief-rendered holes. Amidst fatigue and fear, medical crisis trauma, and the body's betrayals, O'Rourke seeks answers from women: mother, daughters, girlfriends, older ladies in the pool locker room, women of the Bible, creating a sisterhood graciously open to the reader. Being pressed and pushed by the daily tasks and challenges of domestic life, while cutting a child's lunch into small pieces, she reminds herself, "I can wield the dull knife with patience," and we believe we can, too. Rewoven in the Dew thrums through the rooms of a life lived consciously, with compassion and connection. You'll want to return to these rooms again and again, to sip from a mug of hot tea, to collect drops of solace and wisdom - hard-earned and honed.

-Melissa Joplin Higley, author, First Father

Rewoven in the Dew explores what it means to live inside a woman's body and the worlds it carries. Elizabeth O'Rourke finds the profound in the small: a threaded needle, an ant's labor, a hand at the small of the back. Through restraint and tenderness, these poems reveal the bright, ordinary moments that shape us - and the quiet strength of a life lived paying attention. It is a beautiful and moving collection.

-Kay Cosgrove, author, Anybody Home?