Familiars: Poems by Holly Wren Spaulding

A signed copy of Familiars by BMC alum and poet Holly Wren Spaulding. Evocative and intimate, the linked poems in Familiars arise from questions and observations in the more than human world. In her characteristically compact lyrics—little essences—Holly writes about trees, flowers, magic, touch, memory, erasure, power, and her grief over the changing climate.

Many of the poems in Familiars were first seen in public during Holly’s exhibit of letterpress broadsides at the Leelanau Cultural Center in 2017. Her installation was a response to the Oxford Junior Dictionary deleting a number of common words—names of flora and fauna—as they chose to make space for newer words from the world of technology, such as ‘chatroom.’

Familiars takes us on a three-part journey, a travelogue of sorts, with fresh observations of the natural world and our relationship to it. Each poem provides a word from nature as its title and a jumping off point: what does it feel, how does it look, what tales can it tell. A story for this and all times."

• Name : Holly Wren Spaulding