Built By Storms by Miriam Kramer

Also available at: Buy on Amazon Buy on Barnes & Noble Buy on Bookshop.org Prevalent in many of Miriam Kramer’s eclectic poems are the intersecting pathways of grief and trauma, hope and recovery. In her works, Miriam presents odes to getting clean followed by poems excoriating the god of gas station bathrooms. There are lyrical introspections on the bird figurines of her mind that are her thoughts of her late friend—and there are poems about punching walls. But sometimes the path to healing isn’t clear. Sometimes the next step can only be seen in another reality. In Miriam’s myriad words, she processes what has happened over her storied life through the lens of what has not: A dear friend not dying of cancer; what her family photographs would look like had she died in a car accident; that friend being sent to prison instead of overdosing. These alternate worlds sometimes expand to briefly touch the fictional, like the time she was relieved to be getting skinnier only to learn she was literally shrinking. Or when she was an engine driver, until she witnessed a man lie down on the tracks in order to die. Or when she called the poison control hotline thinking it was the suicide hotline—not to be confused with the time she had Google Assistant help arrange her flight to the Netherlands where assisted suicide is legal. In these poems, Miriam demonstrates what it means to be built by the storms of our past, our what-ifs, our lost relationships, and what it means to survive all that was and could have been. Related Titles: 1.) The Only Worlds We Know (Michael Lee) 2.) Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns (Andrea Gibson) 3.) Pieces of a Song (Diane Di Prima) 4.) Our Numbered Days (Neil Hilborn) 5.) Everything is Everything (Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz) Miriam Kramer is a queer, Jewish poet residing in New Jersey with her partner and two cats. She majored in Creative Writing at Pacific University and currently works at an educational nonprofit. Her poetry has appeared in Variant Literature, So to Speak Journal, FreezeRay Poetry, and others. She is the author of three chapbooks prior to her debut full length collection with Write Bloody Publishing. Miriam has performed her poetry in front of a wide range of audiences in a variety of venues across the United States. She’d be thrilled to come read for you. Find her on social media: @miriadwords