Do you have a River within you?

Remember digging your toes into the sand, the grains squished between those ten little digits, grasping for warmth as the river rushes past the tops of your feet; the cool feeling of water that seems to sate the thirst of the soul in need of refreshment? Giggles ensued between you and your friends--happy memories created that you can go back to time and time again during not so happy days. You can’t help but relax when you hear the indecipherable but comforting babbles of the river.

Revisit the river once again with Janice Keck Literary Award winner Sandy Coomer in her new poetry collection, Rivers Within Us. Sandy Coomer uses the river as the central image in her collection to help convey a theme that

“There are rivers within us --
galloping herds of horses, hummingbirds that beat
their tiny hearts millions of times between the bee balm and the sage.”

Coomer’s collection is saturated with natural imagery that does an excellent job of showing aspects of ourselves that we may embrace, shun in embarrassment, or never realized existed in the first place.

In other words, her collection is about what makes us human. Coomer’s symbolic river comes alive and pervades the text and your entire being, even where no rivers exist, as if the narration is told by the river. This intense look into how dreams, death, and the connections we make are all aspects of our humanity that we have to learn how to navigate. Next time you’re digging your toes into the sand, you’ll listen to the sounds of the river with a new appreciation.

Be on the lookout for Rivers Within Us in October, which you can buy from unsolictedpress.com! ​