Around the Bend by Colleen Wells

These poems feel woven by hands that often feel shaky in the tasks of weaving a life, but they keep working at it, not ready to give up. The descriptions of depression and its effects are heartbreaking, and somehow never feel hopeless. Written by a gentle spirit, never letting these poems sink into pure anger and resentment, this is a voice from inside the head of someone who grapples with darkness, but strains for the light. At times, it is just a splinter of light, maybe not even visible, but the way that the pieces are arranged, it feels like one of the threads is golden and it is there, even if we don’t see it every moment. And hope does prevail, as the final line sings, “I rise up…looking up and ahead to what’s next.”

–Mary Beth O’Brien – Creative Director, Women Writing for (a) Change Bloomington

I experienced Colleen Wells‘ poems as edifying and relatable. I was enamored, in particular, by the way she would end her poems. Some of my favorite lines were, “…Sadness seems like something I’d never make time for, but it’s taking all of my time…” (What it is), “…a landscape painting me back to life…” (Vernal Equinox), and “…a thousand maracas shaking all around me…” (Once every Seventeen Years).”

–Lou Stant, Author and Musician

What is around the bend for any of us? What would be if a single facet of our lives were different? In this aptly titled and accessible work, answers to these and other questions allow for reflection, release, and even commiseration over mental health and empty nest, time and everydayness. The words offered within these covers are ones of perspective and fortitude – Colleen Wells offers us vivid pebble after pebble and sometimes drops a boulder.

–Janine Harrison, Weight of Silence and If We Were Birds, former Highland, Indiana Poet Laureate