Pluck

by Adam Hughes

A former pastor reckons with fallout when a lifetime of religious practice intersects with a modern life that’s messier than doctrine allows. What happens when old certainties are no longer certain? What is left when we take off the old clothes that used to keep us warm, but no longer fit? Pluck is a book-length meditation on what wrestling with faith, or its inverse, looks like.

In his 5th poetry collection, Adam Hughes uses a conversational approach to share his own all-too-human personal experiences while pulling back layers of his life, loves, and his relationship to the religion that shaped him. “I want to be known perfectly and loved anyway,” is the cry of the author, as is the acceptance of doubt, disbelief, and drift.

A pursuit of authenticity and a coming to terms with doubt, this book is for all of those who are fellow G(g)od wrestlers, doubters, the restless and dissatisfied, for those who are tired of old certainties and structures that have long since broken down around them.

Genres: Poetry

109 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2025

Reviews

[Tehya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! As someone still knee-deep in the mess that is religious deconstruction, PLUCK feels like a quiet nod to those of us sorting out what we want to keep and what we want to discard. If a promised eternity is so long, maybe it is okay to be uncertain in this moment.

[Waverli Almand · Rating 4 out of 5]

DRC via Edelweiss. 4.5 stars.

The only way I can describe this collection is a love/hate letter to God and himself. There are several lines that I wrote down to read later.