Description
In Its Own Time
by Marianne Brems
Paper
$17.99
979-8-88838-326-1
2023
In Its Own Time is a collection of poems that looks at how time is a critical element in the alignment of factors that determine when and how events occur. Whether in an ICU unit, at the entrance to a swimming pool, in the muddle at a yard sale, or on the banks of a river bed, these poems examine the nuances of events that could easily go unnoticed.
Marianne Brems is a long time writer of trade books and textbooks, but also loves to write poetry and short stories. She has an MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She is the author of the chapbook Sliver of Change. Her poems have also appeared in many literary journals including The Bluebird Word, Front Porch Review, Remington Review, and Green Ink Poetry. She lives, cycles, and swims in Northern California. Website: www.mariannebrems.com.
MK Keffer, Editor of The Bluebird Word –
Marianne Brems pulls the reader into her latest poetry collection In Its Own Time with an urgency to appreciate life in all its human and natural forms despite the sometimes harshness of daily realities. She explores seemingly small scenes of beauty—’just a hat, / not too new, / not too old, / a style seen occasionally, / but not too often’ (“Not Too Often”)—and captures innocence in “Toddler:” ‘The laughing face of a toddler in a grocery cart draws me in. / She waves at the man. / Doesn’t know homeless from neighbor’. Whether recollections of youth, a simple yard sale or the majesty and stillness of a Great Blue Heron, Brems reminds her reader what it is that holds us steady and grounds us to this earthly space that becomes life. In “Cabinet of Options,” she writes ‘but consider the cost / of shutting off avenues / where possibilities may hibernate’. Brems traverses themes of grief, ordinariness, and family, and invites the reader to relate to the routine travails of the everyday while softly encouraging us to appreciate measures of hope woven into each poem. In the end, there is the realization we have travelled a great distance. And we rest, grateful and optimistic calmer roads may lie ahead.
MK Keffer –
Marianne Brems pulls the reader into her latest poetry collection In Its Own Time with an urgency to appreciate life in all its human and natural forms despite the sometimes harshness of daily realities. She explores seemingly small scenes of beauty—’just a hat, / not too new, / not too old, / a style seen occasionally, / but not too often’ (“Not Too Often”)—and captures innocence in “Toddler,” ‘The laughing face of a toddler in a grocery cart draws me in. / She waves at the man. / Doesn’t know homeless from neighbor’. Whether recollections of youth, a simple yard sale or the majesty and stillness of a Great Blue Heron, Brems reminds her reader what it is that holds us steady and grounds us to this earthly space that becomes life. In “Cabinet of Options,” she writes ‘but consider the cost / of shutting off avenues / where possibilities may hibernate’. Brems traverses themes of grief, ordinariness, and family, and invites the reader to relate to the routine travails of the everyday while softly encouraging us to appreciate the measures of hope woven into each poem. In the end, there is the realization we have travelled a great distance. And we rest, grateful and optimistic calmer roads may lie ahead.