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\u201cFalling Forward\u201d is the first full length collection of poetry by Rebecca Schumejda and it does not disappoint.\u00a0 <\/span>This beautifully crafted book, by Sunnyoutside<\/em> from Buffalo, features the artwork of Ed Herrera.\u00a0 <\/span>The stark imagery of a tree above ground and its roots below say a lot about what you will find inside in Rebecca\u2019s book; poems which are culled portions of her life that shed light and reap darkness.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This book is divided into several sections with each one being dedicated to someone in her family:\u00a0 <\/span>her husband, her brother, and her mother.\u00a0 <\/span>Rebecca is not afraid to look at herself critically or turn that eye on her family members, all of which are still in different stages of grieving at the loss of their husband and father.\u00a0 <\/span>She recalls her childhood in each of these sections, save the one to her husband, but even in that one she looks forward to the upcoming childhood of her unborn daughter.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In The Truth is Too Heavy<\/em>, we find very strong poems about the quietness that creeps into a marriage in various stages of dilapidation, despite paled efforts to fix it, and a child on the way.\u00a0 <\/span>It speaks to those things we all look for in a long standing relationship, things we think show that we have reached a higher plane of love, like silent explanations between two lovers and gestures of body that tell more than words, but time makes us realize that these are the pulled cotter pins from the grenade that lies in the center of marriages.\u00a0 <\/span>Rebecca\u2019s poems show us what is relinquished in communication breakdowns that can never really be gotten back.\u00a0 <\/span>She crafts these truths in poems such as \u201cTree of Knowledge\u201d, \u201cDivorce\u201d, and \u201cFour Months From Now.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>My favorite poem of this section is \u201cScrambled Eggs\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen you pull your toast apart,<\/span><\/p>\n I surrender my fork,<\/span><\/p>\n fashion my thumb and index finger<\/span><\/p>\n into a beak and pick at your crust:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n this is how I tell you<\/span><\/p>\n that I don\u2019t need anything<\/span><\/p>\n besides reassurance.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You stir your coffee <\/span><\/p>\n with the handle of a butter knife:<\/span><\/p>\n this is how you tell me<\/span><\/p>\n that you\u2019re not listening.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The second section in her book \u201cFalling Forward\u201d is called Folded Like Two Hands in Prayer<\/em> and is filled with remembrances of her father who passed away, but these poems have a much different feel than those in a previous collection called \u201cDream Big, Work Harder\u201d which is also available at Sunnyoutside.\u00a0 <\/span>These poems have a more shared feeling.\u00a0 <\/span>Many of them include, or are directly about, her brother\u2019s reaction to the death of their father and how each of their adjustments to this loss net them differently, even when they are swimming in the same sea of grief.\u00a0 <\/span>These poems speak to the challenges between them and touch on an unspoken hostility.\u00a0 <\/span>This is pretty evident in poems like \u201cWet Paper Planes\u201d and \u201cRock, Paper, Scissors\u201d, but the most touching poem is \u201cWorkman\u2019s Prayer\u201d that spans religion and choices and hard love:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat afternoon I understood<\/span><\/p>\n my father\u2019s vision of god<\/span><\/p>\n when the sun\u2019s haloed head<\/span><\/p>\n bowed down<\/span><\/p>\n behind storm clouds<\/span><\/p>\n and the distance between<\/span><\/p>\n thunder and lightning,<\/span><\/p>\n father and daughter, <\/span><\/p>\n folded like two hands in prayer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In true form, Rebecca never disappoints and saves the best for last in a section dedicated to her mother called Overgrown with Weeds and Regrets.<\/em> We see the other side to her emotional puzzle and can revel in the trinity of her family.\u00a0 <\/span>These poems are strong in conviction and heart showing the degradation of her mother\u2019s personality in the face of loss, or allowing this devastation as a way to give her mother a touch of grace.\u00a0 <\/span>Rebecca tackles sensitive issues about regret in the poem \u201cThe Recipe Calls for Two Eggs\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBefore she gave birth<\/span><\/p>\n she wanted more;<\/span><\/p>\n she spent hours blending watercolors<\/span><\/p>\n to match the intensity of her dreams:<\/span><\/p>\n magenta, teal, canary, violet\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n Because before was easier\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n she depended on preparations<\/span><\/p>\n rather than outcomes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She explores alcoholism in \u201cHalloween Costumes\u201d and \u201cWhen the Check Clears\u201d, and cold disregard for pity in \u201cEvictions\u201d, but Rebecca sums up the essence of her constitution in the poem \u201cConey Island\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI have never been afraid of tides,<\/span><\/p>\n waiting out storms, or aluminum cans.<\/span><\/p>\n I seesaw tabs until they snap.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve run away from everything that <\/span><\/p>\n means anything to me at some point;<\/span><\/p>\n I always end up back where I started.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rebecca Schumejda is a valuable assest to the small press and to modern poetry.\u00a0 <\/span>Her words are raw and truthful and she is never afraid to turn the mirror on herself and get the truth in return.\u00a0 <\/span>Her work is emotional without being sappy and her language causes chemical reactions in the brain that make one think about how the transgressions of our lives give us character and ultimately make us exactly who we are meant to be.\u00a0 <\/span>You need this book on your shelf, in your backpack, in your hand.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cFalling Forward\u201d is the first full length collection of poetry by Rebecca Schumejda and it does not disappoint.\u00a0 This beautifully crafted book, by Sunnyoutside from Buffalo, features the artwork of Ed Herrera.\u00a0 The stark imagery of a tree above ground and its roots below say a lot about what you \u2026 Continue reading