Sit Wild by Mo Fowler

I am doing everything wrong. From this first line of the first poem in Sit Wild, Mo Fowler’s words rush headlong at the frustrations of modern life; her persona searches for meaning in the gulf between self-doubt and confidence. These are poems of the gig economy, told by a character who’s fighting to put it all together. Even as the speaker bemoans a litany of overbearing male customers in the hardware store where she works, she’s trying so hard, trying to be “better”:

Don’t they know

I am trying to write a poem about how I

am so strong

Fowler’s poems critique a world we don’t want to live in but probably already inhabit. I am taken by the urgency and the energy of Sit Wild. This is a remarkable first collection.

–Bob Stanley, Poet Laureate of Sacramento, 2009-2012

“Sit Wild is a testament to having a dream, trying to chase it, and keeping yourself alive in the meantime.”

–Andrea Busch