Things We Carry by Stacy Julin

In poet Stacy Julin’s Things We Carry deceptively spare and simple language resonates with deep emotion and complexity. The theme of what stays with us is visited through experiences at all stages of life. The young speaker who has just given birth in “Inheritance,” intuiting the trauma handed down by generations, wonders what she can give her child of herself that is not too heavy to bear, is small “enough not to cast / a shadow.” Females in this collection have feared and / or experienced a beloved’s betrayal, despite seeking charms to prevent them. But like betrayal, many experiences are indelible, like a child’s first encounter with a war veteran missing limbs. The speaker herself recognizes just how much of existence is out of one’s control, for if “not for God / and penicillin” her own life would have ended almost before it began. And Loneliness itself, with a capital L, can come to stay and wrap around’s one grief for a long time. These poems are concise gems full of authenticity and vulnerability that speak honestly of the foibles and gifts all we humans possess. Ultimately, Things We Carry is a gentle yet powerful collection.

–Lana Hechtman Ayers, author of When All Else Fails

Stacy Julin’s “Things We Carry” is rife with observations about complexities of family life. The speaker sees the world through an introspective lens; there is nothing safe or easy about these poems, Those broken walls/were never strong enough/to keep a life within them,/or keep the wild out. The poems are understated reflections on the ordinary and imperfect, meditations about our interconnectedness, and the realization that nothing and no one lasts: I’m holding onto ground./ Trying to plant a piece / of you. And through it all, Julin focuses her gaze on what is learned through loss—how the passage of time makes us aware of our fragility, how family treasures anchor us to each other and to memories, how we need time to daydream and create, and space to appreciate the beauty and wonders of the world: the earth-blown glass,/coating the smallest details/of a tree in wintertime.  

–Ami Kaye, Editor, Glass Lyre Press