"With sharp, sometimes stinging precision, Brooke Lehmann traces the wounds of her oppressive religious upbringing, a world governed by an abusive father and a distant mother. And always alongside this world is the world of true warmth, of nature’s startling beauty, of sensual love and strawberry jam. Still, what a core (chord?) of pain in this book. These poems are not for the faint of heart, but for those open enough, perceptive enough, these poems—full of “a rage, a knowing”—will remake your heart, even as they bruise it. Knowledge here comes not so much from an idyllic garden nor a holy book, but from a poet’s life, her survival and her total uncompromising breath, finally unleashed, on the page, in the air." Chen Chen