Carpenters daughter

Jill N. Osier
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:45:16 PDT

Carpenter's Daughter reveals the construction and reconstruction a woman understands her life to be. Acknowledging the creation of identity through the tools of history, memory, dream, and imagination, it further explores where these worlds converge at different points along the path from child to girl to woman. The poems are equally concerned with dynamics beyond a sense of self--particularly how things come together and come apart. In both the realm of nature and that of human emotion, the speakers are confronted by tenuous connections and surprising holds, moved by the frailties lying beneath solid foundations and the grace witnessed in failing frames. Though several poems use formal patterns of line or stanza, most work in free verse and are driven by narrative, image, or voice. These also provide thematic links throughout the collection, their echoes serving to fully present ideas as well as celebrate sound.