Help in the Dark Season: Poems

by Jacqueline Suskin

Overview

The poems in Help in the Dark Season expose lessons of adult and childhood trauma, relationship joys and failures, and the all-around hard work of true togetherness.

Help in the Dark Season explores the pathway of human love as it begins in the dark, moves into parental hands, transfers into to experiments of the heart, grows, breaks, and ultimately transforms us more than any other experience we withstand. Each poem walks us into Jacqueline Suskin's world, where dreams and sacred visions are just as important as reality, where planet earth is an active character and spouse, and every attempt at love adds up as wisdom worth remembering. There are so many ways for us to access love; these poems map this personal process, uncovering the helpful tools and healing realizations that Suskin has gathered while conjuring up and relentlessly believing in love. Even when it hurts us the most and causes the worst confusion, even when it's laughable and foolish, these poems aim to provide proof that human connection is crucial and always worth the risk.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949342338
Publisher:	Write Bloody Publishing
Publication date:	11/02/2021
Pages:	100
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.25(d)

About the Author

Jacqueline Suskin is a poet and educator based in Los Angeles. She is the author of three books, including The Edge of The Continent(Rare Bird 2018). Known for her project Poem Store, Suskin composes improvisational poetry for patrons who choose a topic in exchange for a unique verse. Poem Store has been her main occupation since 2009 and has taken her around the world. She was honored by Michelle Obama at the White House as a Turnaround Artist, and her work has been featured in New York Times, T Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, and various other publications.

Table of Contents

I My Parent Is the Universe

How I Fell in Love with the Earth 19

Hut Woman-Past Life 20

No 21

Married to a Phantom 22

No Siblings 23

A Glass Thread, an Endless Song 24

Beast Love 25

Before I Want My Father to Die 26

The Jew & the Fisherman 27

The Balance of Old and New 28

Keep It Close 29

Salt Water 30

Baptism Dream 31

Mother Mirror 32

I Died Behind the House 33

II Is Human Love the Light?

Heart Song 37

The Wife Who Is Ready 38

I'm a Great Offering of Eggs 39

Be Present for It 40

You're Not a Human Being 41

To Love a Woman 42

Dark Shape 43

Three Rivers 46

Hands Deep in the Dark 47

No Romance 48

The Fall 49

Bed Sheet 50

Who Wants to Fall in Love? 51

Hummingbird 52

Bamboo 53

Cross Country 54

Alone 55

Dirt Eater 56

Missing 57

To Love a Man & His Family 58

Not Haunted 59

Chicago When the Floor Broke 60

Spirits in the Void 61

III Help in the Dark Season

Heart Song II 65

How Love Learns 66

No New Dicks 68

Nearly Done Trying to Live 69

I'm Not Your Boyfriend 71

Heart Rock 72

A Wave of Resistance 73

Common Place 74

The Way My Wings Have Changed 75

Partners 76

Together 77

Perciple 78

The Able Man 80

The Work That Cannot Be Done Alone 82

It Can Be Better Than You Ever Hoped 83

How We Stay 84

To See It Better 86

No Longer Desperation 87

How to Fall in Love with Yourself 89

Lord's Kin 90

Future 91

Editorial Reviews

With each poem a new spell is cast, for Jacqueline teaches us over and over again that there is indeed a light in the darkest seasons of our hearts, our communities, and our futures.

Jacqueline writes about love not in the one-dimensional, heart-emoji sense but as it truly feels: mysterious, insane, ever shifting—a force that binds us to one another, to this earth, and to ourselves.

Suskin has ascended to a heart surgeon's level of ability in her poetry with this book, taking the blood of the matter and humanizing the cure with her words.
—Jena Malone, actor

From the Publisher