bouquet of thorny rose explores the intricacies of living in a deviant body through the intersections of pleasure, trauma, memory, and emotion. It burrows deep into relationships with self, others, and the world to examine, unearth, and name. To tend and prune. You will find stories of violation, reclamation, naked truths and hard-won joy.
"...just as tender-sharp and harrowingly generous as the title implies." – TC Tolbert, Tucson Poet Laureate, Gephyromania and The Quiet Practices
Published by Echobird Press and available as both a paperback and an ebook direct from the publisher online, and as a paperback at many local indie bookstores. You also can find it on IndieBooks, either directly online through them, or by searching for an independent store near you that's carrying it. If the store nearest you isn't carrying it yet, please suggest it!
Please also request it from your local library! You'll need the author name, the book title, the publisher, and the ISBN number: 978 1 961370 04 3.
You can read a sample poem below.
Lessons I’m learning from my garden
1. Roses don’t survive because they are beautiful. Their roots are deep and stubborn, twisting underground, foot by unlit foot. Bypassing borders and paths altogether. Pushing up through domesticated landscapes into a spot of sunlight they choose. They bloom as resistance. They hook their thorns into thin air and climb the sky.
2. Spiders turn persistence into art. Sustain themselves on trespassers, and refuse to smile.
3. Weeds carry the wisdom of the elders they’d have us forget. Handfuls of color and mouthfuls of flavor. Medicine mowed under and returning stronger than before. Outlaws seeding intuition.
(Originally published in Unchaste Readers Series: Volume 1, all rights reserved, do not copy or reproduce without the authors permission.)