Thaw: Poems (The National Poetry Series)

Thaw delves into the issues at the core of a resilient family: kin ship poverty violence death abuse and grief. The poems follow the speaker as both mother and daughter as she travels through harsh and beautiful landscapes in Canada Sweden and the United States. Moving through these places she examines how her surroundings affect her inner landscape; the natural world becomes both a place of refuge and a threat. As these themes unfold the histories and cold truths of her family and country intertwine and impinge on her even as she tries to outrun them.. Unflinching and raw Chelsea Dingman’s poems meander between childhood and adulthood the experiences of being a mother and a child paralleling one another. Her investigation becomes one of body self woman mother daughter sister and citizen and of what those roles mean in the contexts of family and country.