Author: Brenda Miller, Winner of the 2020 Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award
The Daughters of Eldery Women by Brenda Miller occupies the liminal space between growing up and growing old, shock and aftershock. With the repeated titles of her poems functioning as a mantra, Miller inhabits a narrative mindfulness, focusing on the maturing relationship between daughter and mother. She explores “what happens to a body / when you make it hold on // beyond its expiration date.” These poems speak to the quiet suffering of the human condition in “voices soft / as they’ll ever be” but ultimately it is “this grief before grief” that reminds us we only mourn what is loved.
Some books help us escape; Miller’s book keeps us wholly present.