Hello friend! Today is a book excerpt post that comes from a poetry book, If The Sky Won’t Have Me by Anne Leigh Parrish. I connected with the author as part of Poetic Book Tours.
Get to know the author: Anne Leigh Parrish
Tell me and my readers a bit about yourself!
I’ve been writing prose for almost 40 years, but ventured into poetry only about five years ago. In that time, I’ve published over sixty poems. My first poetry collection, The Moon Won’t Be Dared, came out from Unsolicited Press in 2021. If The Sky Won’t Have Me is my second collection and published on April 4th, 2023. Along with writing, I also take photographs. You can learn more about that at www.Laviniastudios.com, and about my writing at www.anneleighparrish.com. I live in the South Sound region of Washington State.
What inspired you to write this book?
I’m continuing to explore poetry, which I began in 2017. This is my second volume of poems. A third will publish next year, and a fourth is in the works.
How long did it take you to write this book, from the first idea to the last edit?
I couldn’t say for certain, but most of my books take around a year.
What makes your poetry collection unique?
I think the combination of subjects and themes. I write a lot about nature, but also about women’s rights, political situations, and getting older. I have a wide reach, in other words, and a deep reverence for the part of the country in which I live.
Who would enjoy reading your book?
Those who love free verse poetry and who aren’t afraid of an author who “tells it like it is.”
What’s something you hope readers would take away from it?
That words are both precious and powerful, as are ideas, but that people – how people are treated and given or denied respect – matters most.
Do you have a favourite quote or poem in the book that you find yourself going back to?
The poem “Pothole” seems to beckon me. This is a piece about violence against women, where a woman is murdered by the mechanic repairing her car. Her consciousness remains after the fact, and she wonders how she got herself into such an awful situation. She concludes that she wrecked her car because she was distracted by something beautiful, the sky, or a bird. ”Beauty, always beauty – it got her every time / Even that man & his dispatching hands / Even they were beautiful”
What’s the best piece of advice you have received related to poetry and writing?
Just keep going and challenging yourself to get better
If you could give a shout out to someone(s) who has helped in your writer journey, please feel free to mention them below!
My publisher, Unsolicited Press
If The Sky Won’t Have Me
By Anne Leigh Parrish
The poems in If The Sky Won’t Have Me weave a brilliant tapestry of the human condition, focusing on nature, the female experience, family drama, aging, politics, and regret. Images of water feature strongly, as do rebirth and regeneration, both physical and spiritual. A perfect sequel to the author’s debut collection, the moon won’t be dared, these poems expand and deepen our understanding of what it means to be alive in a complex world.
Content notes: Some pieces are sexually explicit and blunt
Book Excerpt from
If The Sky Won’t Have Me
“Lie Down”
Lie down, let the earth cover you
Settle among the bones & stone
This is where they want you
Fill with birdsong the hole their murder
Made in your throat
Let your rotten skin filter rain until streams
Are fed by you
Lie down, join their celebration
Absolve them of their hate
Flow into the sea
“Little Cautions”
Slow down when the tires slip
Drop the flame when the sauce boils
Pour water for ten seconds, not five
Onto the dry soil of your
Struggling African violet
Endless little cautions
Make a life of prudence
We’re not as sturdy as before
More prone to stumble & fall
That’s okay
Time wears us hard
No matter if the outside
Shows its age
As long as we’re still lit from within
“If The Sky Won’t Have Me”
The rain makes a river of the road
Rushing rivulets, eddies all aswirl
It goes where gravity takes it &
Gathers in a low point, getting deeper
& wider as the storm fails
To relent
I step into the river, reluctantly at first
Then gladly, for I’m ready now to
Be borne away
How easy to drift downstream,
Seeing the familiar yield to the new
The water makes ounces out of pounds
Even hollows bones & maybe I’ll lift off soon
If the sky won’t have me, the riverbank will
Or the shore, even the ocean depths
It doesn’t matter where i come to rest—
I’ll stay just until clouds gather,
Rain falls again & i release myself once more
Interested?
Find this book on Goodreads and Amazon. Connect with Anne on her website, Twitter and Instagram. Images used in the excerpt were provided by Anne.
If you are an indie author and would like to do a book excerpt, check out my work with me page for details.
Cover Photo by vaun0815 on Unsplash
Thank you for being on this blog tour for Anne Leigh Parrish’s book, If the Sky Won’t Have Me.