The Orange Spotlight

Rest In Black Haw by Emily Elizabeth Schulten (New Plains Press, 2009)

"Around the trees I hide/and seek with myself,/press my back to the uneven bark/and try to slow my breath"

I spent a good portion of my childhood running through the cornfields, playing on the farms, jumping over the ditches of the rural Midwest. I remember the summer days that would never seem to end, backyards that connected friends and families, and trees that were perfect for climbing. In her latest collection, Rest In Black Haw, Emily Elizabeth Schulten recalls a world that does not seem all that distant from the one I grew up in. It is a world drunk with nature, sweet and swirling around the heart of a young girl on the verge of losing innocence but still very present in the peak of youthfulness.

"I think what a year might feel like and picture those aphids at the mercy of wind, hoping to rest in the black haw before winter."

Most of this collection takes place in that moment that to the teen feels like an eternity but really last for just a brief amount of time. It's the summer festivals, the carnival in the park, the games and dances, it's growing into something you've always wanted to be. You want to experience more, but at the same time you know that once you reach that point nothing will ever be the same again.

Rest in Black Haw was published last year by New Plains Press and you can read a sample here.