Description

 

More Water Than Tears

by Rebecca Lynne Bluemel

What is the process of relearning and redefining oneself when one’s world falls apart? This collection of poetry  travels one view of a life that shatters into new life amidst trauma and examines what needs allowance and gentleness to heal and grow. In such a state of growth, these poems attempt to remind the reader that it is ok to cry, but to also remember to have more water than tears.

Enjoy a video of Rebecca reading from her new book:

 

Early Praise:

More Water Than Tears by Rebecca Bluemel is an evocative exploration of transformation, grief, and resilience, celebrating the strength found in vulnerability and the beauty within fragility. Through poetic meditations that begin with the words “speak to me of the cocoon,” Smolen invites readers to reflect on life’s in-between spaces—those moments where we are both confined and expanding, poised for change. From the piercing ache of motherhood’s quiet sacrifices to the solace found in nature and ancient mythology, this collection draws deeply on the personal to reveal universal truths. Smolen’s work is a testament to the endurance of the human spirit, the way loss and hope can intertwine like the silk of a cocoon with the understanding that “there is an elegance to being / beautiful when you’re at an edge.” Her poems guide us into the embrace of our own transformations, even when painful, reminding us that rebirth is a powerful revolution.

—Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Dialogues with Rising Tides

 

In this third poetry collection, Rebecca Bluemel gives us evidence that healing from trauma is possible, but one must be willing to implicate oneself in order to understand what is essential. “I am forever unfinished,” her speaker admits in one poem. In another, she wonders if her life would have been different, “had I paid better attention to the monotony / I taught myself to fall in love with.“ In brief conversational poems, Bluemel seems to be speaking both to us readers and to herself. In one of the book’s most poignant poems, her youngest child gives her written advice: “Always believe in yourself,” the note states, though it is spelled this way: “All ways be live in yourself.” These insightful and revealing poems provide guidance we all need..

—Andrea Hollander, author of And Now, Nowhere but Here

 

In More Water Than Tears, Rebecca Bluemel exhorts us to “speak of the cocoon.” She delves into how the most cataclysmic changes can be hidden—inside a chrysalis, in quiet supplications to mythological figures, or cloaked in the passage of time. We experience drowning, mourning, and recovery—caught up in the process of reinvention with her.

—Trina Gaynon, author of Quince, Rose, Grace of God

 

In More Water Than Tears, Rebecca Bluemel leads us into deep views down and in—of change that’s “swaddled to bring back to womb,” of the weeks before “white hyacinths / in each corner, tulips to cradle” and of what can be held in “small / pale blossomed palms.” These are poems that limn the cusp, that in defining what’s not faced or what’s incomplete by naming season, sentiment, creature and myth, we can put ourselves on the road to freeing ourselves.

—John Miller, author of Olympic and Andes

About the Author

Rebecca Lynn Bluemel is a Gateless® certified facilitator, group leader, and writing coach. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her two adorable gingers, leads a current series of generative writing workshops online, and owns and operates her own pet sitting business, Home Sweet Home Pet Care LLC. Her book, Excoriation, and chapbook, Womanhood and Other Scars, were previously published by The Poetry Box.  Her poetry has appeared in The Poeming Pigeon, Feminine Collective, Cirque, Tiny Seed, and many others.