Tag: Relationships

Books6 Comments

Book: My Name is Lucy Barton

Charlotte Hamrick

“Do I understand that hurt my children feel? I think I do, though they might claim otherwise. But I think I know so well the pain we children clutch to our chests, how it lasts our whole lifetime, with longings so large you can’t even weep. We hold it tight, we do, with each seizure of the beating heart: This is mine, this is mine, this is mine.” —- My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout It’s been a while since I finished a book in less than 48 hours time. I finished this morning. From the time I … Continue reading Book: My Name is Lucy Barton

Books8 Comments

I Was Bookjacked by Lidia Yuknavitch

Charlotte Hamrick

My WIT Month reading has gotten off to a shaky start. I was about a fourth of the way through Aimez – Vous Brahms when Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Chronology of Water (not a translated book) bookjacked me. Really. Once I began reading TCoW there was no looking back, there was no reading anything else, there was practically no other activity out of me other than reading that book. It all began with an essay I read in Guernica by Lidia which I wildly loved and propelled me to finally read this book, her memoir, which had been on … Continue reading I Was Bookjacked by Lidia Yuknavitch

My Poetry4 Comments

Mamma and Granny

Charlotte Hamrick

I’ve written many poems about my mother in the past few years but they’re all about her time in ICU before she died in 2012. It was a sorrowful, stressful time and I tend to write more when I’m melancholy. I was looking through them to find one to post today for Mothers Day but they’re all sad except for this one. It’s short (my preferred form) but it refers to a basic truth that I only recognized after her death. Dowser   You were the divining rod of my life long before I even knew you, when I was … Continue reading Mamma and Granny

Books4 Comments

Book Review: Everything I Never Told You

Charlotte Hamrick

“He pushed her in. And then he pulled her out. All her life, Lydia would remember one thing. All his life, Nath would remember another.” And that’s the crux of what I loved about this book –  the differences in the character’s perspectives and how it drove the story. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng is about The Lees, a racially blended family of five living in small town Ohio. The second child, Lydia, ia the undisputed favorite of her parents and this book is about what happens to her, events that influenced it , and its effect on the … Continue reading Book Review: Everything I Never Told You

NaPoWriMo 2014, Poetry2 Comments

Palm Strong

Charlotte Hamrick

Held to Earth by fiber and root Palm leaves contort in the wind like words flung across a thunder filled room, end over end, between our quarreling anger You have no idea the effect your words had on me last night in bare feet, water dripping from just-shampooed hair and frustrated eyes, I wrapped a shield of silence around my body, a security blanket, while your voice boomed its disapproval Palm leaves wiggle and chatter, each frond single yet attached to the petiole, every petiole dependent on the rooted stem In stormy weather it’s tossed but it’s flexible, not allowing … Continue reading Palm Strong