“Women are tired, tired of defense, tired of permission, tired of dismissal. Show me a woman who has not known abuse, who has not been betrayed, who has not been manipulated, who has not been coerced into unspeakable things: taking the fall, writing the letters, harboring secrets to stay in the game. Such oppression and anger, hatred and fear, selfishness and ego, patronizing the years. All the world is heaving, spitting, bursting with disfunction, hurling insults left and right like they are little boys with tiny guns (fight with your heart, not your might). I see the bonds of ancient evils loosened, even though it’s hotter, seven times to be exact. I think God must be coming. Soon.”
— Hot Flash — a poem from the collection.
During the eight months my husband and I spent apart this last year, I experienced burnout and exhaustion on many different levels. I thought of the ways women all over the world collectively experience exhaustion as mothers, wives, and world nurturers, and wanted to write poems that held up our experiences to a magnifying glass, and gave them hope and release. This collection explores themes of motherhood, marriage, identity, and faith, and all the ways they get buried in the margins of our lives. I hope these poems fill your heart with a lot of a love, fresh inspiration, and good measures of laughter.
Preorders GREATLY affect the size and success of the initial print run, and are available at Finishing Line Press . Books will ship out January 3rd, 2020, when “Buried in the Margins” officially releases.
Thank you all for your generous and beautiful support! Happy Reading 🙂
Advance Praise
Buried in the Margins is a critical collection of poetry that voices our ever-present desire to be seen as mothers, co-creators, and divine wisdom. Folsom honors land, motherhood, food, and God, while taking us on a trip from birth to rebirth. This powerful collection weathers the seasons with its readers when “even the sunflowers/won’t look [us] in the eye” to unfolding the awe of the oaks as “aging magistrates of wonder/running circles around the time.” Folsom pens the human condition wrapped in majesty.
–Carolina Hinojosa-Cisneros, author of Becoming Coztototl, recipient of the 2019 Rubem Alves Award in Theopoetics
Kelsi Folsom has given us a treasure worth it’s weight in gold. My copy of Buried in the Margins sits close to me at my writing desk, bearing the stains of coffee mugs, wine glasses, and tears. Make no mistake, this is NOT a coffee table book, politely waiting to be taken up and glanced at. Kelsi has given us a book that begs to be touched, tasted, and felt with each reading and re-reading. Images, cadences, and rhythms so rich and real you could dance to them. Her poetry is full of urgent oxygen — most important for this moment we occupy in time. You will not regret one moment spent with this talented poetess.
— Belinda Bauman, author of Brave Souls: Experiencing the Audacious Power of Empathy, founder of One Million Thumbprints
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Kelsi for the past few years, and these poems give you an intimate glance at the journey she and her family have taken. As she “walks an impossible line between have and have not,” you won’t regret joining her as she shares her heart’s perspective on the twists and turns of the always adventurous path we call being a woman, wife, and mother.
—Anna Maher, author of Embracing Mystery
*Read more sneak peeks here and here
Kelsi Folsom 