The Unfolding

by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

In The Unfolding, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer startles us with the wonder, beauty, and sacred connection that blossom out of living wholeheartedly. Here the aching heart goes dancing. Written after the deaths of her son and father, these poems embody paradox—simultaneously somber and playful, brokenhearted and uplifting, even solemn and sexy. Trommer wades heart-deep in the broken world and finds in the rubble these honest, surprising invitations to praise.

Praise for The Unfolding

“I didn’t realize how much I needed Rosemerry’s words to remind me of what most matters. This beautiful collection of poems reveals the power of saying Yes to life, the blessings of loving without holding back. Each offering is a powerful transmission: our spirit is invited forward to cherish—praise!—both the darkness and luminosity of existence. Especially in these shadowy times, The Unfolding is pure medicine for our tender, awakening hearts.”
—Tara Brach, mindfulness teacher and author of Radical Compassion

“More than anyone I have ever encountered, poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer meets each moment with unbridled curiosity and then, after paying close attention to all its contours, takes that moment into her arms and praises it. She praises quietly or full-throated, with equal measures of humility and authority, down to the darkest bones and out to the luminous edges of the known universe. This collection reconfigured me.”
—Mirabai Starr, author of Wild Mercy and Ordinary Mysticism

“Like so many, I turn regularly to the work of Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer when I need to believe again that the world is still a kind and welcoming place, alive with compassion and full of singing even in the darkest of times. From the very first poem of hers that I read, I was led more deeply into myself, suddenly feeling that so much was possible, the field wide-open once more. In this latest collection, The Unfolding, her words become ‘searchlights / that will help us find / what we don’t yet know / we are looking for,’ teaching us how to hold sorrow and beauty, grace and grief at the same time. Rosemerry Trommer is a fearless poet of the heart, and she possesses the exceedingly rare ability to turn even the simplest of moments into sacred lessons we can carry into our days, helping us to recognize—even when we’d rather turn away—the holiness that keeps unfolding at the center of our own very human lives.
—James Crews, author of Unlocking the Heart: Writing for Mindfulness, Courage & Self-Compassion and editor of How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude & Hope

“I don’t know how she does it. In The Unfolding, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer opens her arms and heart and voice so wide, everything we experience comes inside to be held, to shine. The greatest grief, our unexpected nudges of memory, the way the world goes on despite everything—she finds a way to weave continuance, embodiment of love, which may change shape, but never disappears. ‘After I did not die the first minute, / I lived the next minute. / More truly, life lived me.’ These powerful poems are anthems of clarity and ultimate care.”
—Naomi Shihab Nye, Paterson Poetry Prize recipient and author of Everything Comes Next

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2024

About the author

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer co-hosts Emerging Form (a podcast on creative process), Secret Agents of Change (a surreptitious kindness cabal) and Soul Writer’s Circle. Her poetry has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, PBS News Hour, O Magazine, American Life in Poetry, on Carnegie Hall stage, and on river rocks she leaves around town. Her collection Hush won the Halcyon Prize. Naked for Tea was a finalist for the Able Muse Book Award. Rosemerry has been writing and sharing a poem a day since 2006. Find her daily poems on her blog, A Hundred Falling Veils or a curated version (with optional prompts) on her daily audio series, The Poetic Path, available on your phone with the Ritual app. She is the author of Exploring Poetry of Presence II: Prompts to deepen your writing practice, and her poetry album, Dark Praise, explores “endarkenment,” available anywhere you listen to music. Her most recent collection is The Unfolding.

Reviews

[Abi Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the best writing on grief I’ve ever read. It was equal parts sad and beautiful. I highly recommend it, but make sure you are feeling mentally stable before engaging (parts of it are pretty heavy).

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

To read Rosemerry’s writing is to be invited into your own human, embodied experience. I felt so much more awake to my own life and emotions with each piece, which I savored and will read again and again. This is a book to be passed from hand to hand to those who you know need it — which is to say, all of us.

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another amazing collection from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. Such an insight into grief and the healing from grief and the living with grief. Great book for anyone who is grieving.

[kellymross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning. I’ve never read any of Rosemerry’s previous works, but that is about to change. This book is a gift, so beautiful.

[Travis West · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s most recent collection is a penetrating, insightful, and deeply human reflection on grief and its myriad invitations to become more fully present, more fully awake, and more fully alive. Poem after poem astonished me with her depth of experience, her vulnerability and naked wandering into the darkness of human experience, and yet every time encountering light and life and love. I slowed down reading it, and feel more here, more courageous, and more “me” after finishing it.

[Danielle Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so full of beauty, so very full of grief. Entwined and inseparable, like life.

[Natalie Langdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some poetry feels like breathing, natural and necessary. Unfolding is that kind of book. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer balances the weight of hardship and the wonder of existence so effortlessly it almost feels like magic. But anyone who has lived deeply knows how much it takes to hold both at once.

These poems don’t turn away from grief or uncertainty, but they don’t sink into them either. Instead, they lean toward awe, toward an openness that feels like worship, though not in any religious sense. More like the kind that happens when you stand under a vast sky and feel both small and infinite at the same time.

Reading Unfolding reminds me of Mary Oliver’s Devotions in spirit, but Trommer’s voice is entirely her own. Her poems invite you to slow down, to pay attention, to find wonder even in the ache of being alive. There’s no forced resolution, no neat answers. Just a quiet, luminous invitation to be here, to keep unfolding.

It’s the kind of book I found myself reading aloud at the dinner table, one I know I’ll return to again and again.

[Christine Hiester · Rating 5 out of 5]

100 stars would not be enough. ❤️

[Monica Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think Small

Even the smallest strand of saffron
goldens the rice and lends
its good and earthy bitterness
to each of the ten thousand
grains in the pot.

My friend said she wants
to make a bigger difference,
doubts the effect she has.
There are many ways, I think,
to reach many.

One is to do as the saffron crocus does—
put everything you have
into just a few threads,
then trust they’re potent enough
to change everything.

[Marcy Guenette · Rating 4 out of 5]

A small book of poems dealing with the emotional intensity of profound grief. Easy to pick and and put down at any time, and which can be read in any order as the subject or mood strikes.

The author shares her personal experiences on this roller coaster grief ride, and also her appreciation of the beauty and quiet joy to be found in everyday ordinary life. It’s a thoughtful reflection on life after a deeply traumatic event, and finding a way through the darkness.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This broke me wide open in the best ways. Trommer explores themes of grief and loss, beauty and love, with the sacred woven throughout.

[Renée Roehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trying to choose shelves for this book to land on illuminated what I love about it: it goes everywhere! touches everything! so I settled on the basic themes, or did I?

Beautiful music in these lines, poems woven in plants & stars, leaves & water, flowers & food, with magic, surrender, praise; with grief, some secrets and as an extra wonderful gift: each section starts with word that Trommer has made up. They're words I plan on using, as at least three of them are words the world needed but didn't know it. Here's one:

"Sorrom
n. a paradoxical praise for beauty, love, strength and connection that can only emerge as we wrestle with devastation, grief and the worries and pains of daily living; a positive side-effect of surrender and trust in life and death. ~ from sorrow + om ... pronounced [sáwr-om]"

Rosemerry (I love this magical spelling) is one of my favorite working poets right now. I considered quoting favorite lines or delving more into the movements but, really, this book is so full & brilliant & bright as it traverses the necessary world of the dark, willing to take us and show us how the light is still glimmering--just ahead--that you'll just have to savor it for yourself.

Highly, Highly recommend!

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another beautiful book by Rosemerry. This one is centered around her son's death. While there were poems about him in All the Honey, this one grief is central.

I prefer All the Honey as far as which book I'm most likely to pick up a read. But I will be keeping this one. There are times in life when we need to read about other's grief, to share with them our own. If I'd read this a year ago, it would have hit home even more after the loss of a loved one.

This book is more specific. It has to do with suicide. I was suicidal for over half my life (up until now). While it can be difficult to read, I believe it's therapeutic to listen to the stories and affects such a tragic death has on the people left behind.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a beautiful, heartbreaking, full-of-grace book. If you know someone undergoing the long process of grief (and who doesn't know someone doing that?), give them a copy of this book to comfort them on that arduous trek.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

[And 100 books read in 20025! Review forthcoming.]