The brilliance of Erin Schmidt‘s poetry is in its inherent understanding that the Spokane River does not stop at her banks. She boils up out of her bed, over her banks, roiling through willows, to saturate the lives, the desires, and the struggles of those who live in the valley. The human relationships, the passions and desires that come to life within Dear Spokane River I Love You become themselves the beautiful sounds of running water.
–Jerry White, Jr., Spokane Riverkeeper Emeritus (2014-2024)
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Erin’s writing weaves together the whimsy and the real. Her images are as haunting as they are fantastic! Poetry from Erin is like finding a secret door to unknown land; you never know what’s coming next, only that you’re in the best of hands.
–Mery Noel Smith, Spokane Poet Laureate
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In this plain spoken “love letter to the Spokane River,” Erin Schmidt transforms everyday detritus into “golden comets.” Part lament and part celebration, the book weaves the voices of students and children with the voice of the author, teacher, parent, and observer. Schmidt is not afraid of sentiment and not afraid of the dark. She writes, “I feel like smashing out all my teeth and replacing them with a gold grill of other people’s teeth” and also, “sometimes my life is 10,000 birds with a sense of direction.” She admits to never being able to give voice to the river in any single line or poem, but somehow, this letter manages to do just that, and finally, it gives us our own role: “find pieces that gleam and take them.”
–Polly Buckingham, author of The River People
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