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While some of the others seem untouched,
And I am wearisome of those unknown waters."
In this collection, a speaker watches a young son grow and develop his own personality, and fragments of thoughts embrace small moments that others might overlook. Even though heartache lingers for the speaker in many of the poems, there is self-awareness about one's own growth and maturity. Other poems, like “Early Bird,” celebrate and promote self-care and the value of silence and solitude. Poems like “Adjustment Period” examine how the changes in one’s environment impact one’s well-being and mental health. “Opening the Channel” and a number of other poems quietly celebrate nature’s healing and restorative powers. At the core of each poem is a quiet meditation about the significance of that moment in the longer scheme of life.
These poems carefully balance the light and the darkness, the struggle and the victory, of everyday existence. A son becomes a lovable “warrior of chaos,” and in that chaos, a quiet beauty thrives. Much like the Transcendentalists of the past, the speaker finds respite in nature and quiet spaces. That affection shows in poems like “A Letter to the Snow,” which opens with the lovely line “My dearest winter.” Part of the collection’s appeal is the speaker’s honesty and vulnerability, especially as they confide to readers, “I feel like the world is conspiring against me.” Thus, the collection develops an easily accessible humanity that invites readers into the speaker’s personal life and thoughts. The poems are written in a variety of forms, and this structural diversity makes each and every poem like an individual with their own personality, their own thoughts, and their own way of looking at life.