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Held Inside the Folds of Time
80 pages, Hardcover
Published August 27, 2025
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About the author
Merril D. Smith
25 books9 followersI am a poet and independent scholar. My most recently published book is Sexual Harassment: A Reference Handbook. I'm currently working on two poetry collections and have published poetry in various journals. I'm one of the hosts of dVerse Poets' Pub
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 11, 2025
Merril D. Smith’s new poetry collection, Held Inside the Folds of Time, is a testament to Smith’s background as a historian. But what is more important is Smith’s sensitivity to previous generations. She opens the collection with a poem about a cave painting. By doing so, he connects us with all who have come before.
She recognizes what she’s learned from her ancestors, who–in “How I Learned”–“showed me that I have my own wings– / unfold them, fly. This, too, is part of the pattern.” The poet can’t or won’t get away from them: “My dead follow me through every timeline” (“Suspended, Surrounded”).
Smith’s ancestors who immigrated to the United States, her own family of origin, even the soldiers who died in a Revolutionary War battle are all subjects of the book. “In Memorium: For the Unknown Soldiers at Red Bank Battlefield” asserts “their ghosts roam the battlefield / settling their bones, unsettled in time.”
Nature features prominently in Smith’s poetry, and this is where the lyrical beauty of her writing is best displayed. She uses many poetic techniques, particularly variations of rhyme, such as off rhyme, end rhyme, and internal rhyme. These lines are from “Cross-Quarter Days”:
The blooms have browned,
blossoms scattered to the wind
now snow veils the ground,
there above, one bony root unpinned.”
While the poems contain examples of the beauty of life, the overall tone of the book is a lovely mournfulness. As Smith writes in “Winter Birches,” “there is no happily ever, only after.”
Held Inside the Folds of Time demonstrates the potential gorgeousness of language as it mourns and celebrates the poet’s world.
She recognizes what she’s learned from her ancestors, who–in “How I Learned”–“showed me that I have my own wings– / unfold them, fly. This, too, is part of the pattern.” The poet can’t or won’t get away from them: “My dead follow me through every timeline” (“Suspended, Surrounded”).
Smith’s ancestors who immigrated to the United States, her own family of origin, even the soldiers who died in a Revolutionary War battle are all subjects of the book. “In Memorium: For the Unknown Soldiers at Red Bank Battlefield” asserts “their ghosts roam the battlefield / settling their bones, unsettled in time.”
Nature features prominently in Smith’s poetry, and this is where the lyrical beauty of her writing is best displayed. She uses many poetic techniques, particularly variations of rhyme, such as off rhyme, end rhyme, and internal rhyme. These lines are from “Cross-Quarter Days”:
The blooms have browned,
blossoms scattered to the wind
now snow veils the ground,
there above, one bony root unpinned.”
While the poems contain examples of the beauty of life, the overall tone of the book is a lovely mournfulness. As Smith writes in “Winter Birches,” “there is no happily ever, only after.”
Held Inside the Folds of Time demonstrates the potential gorgeousness of language as it mourns and celebrates the poet’s world.
December 14, 2025
Merril's poetry is the kind I can truly enjoy. She speaks to me and lets me into her world. She fills them with colours and life and in this beautiful book, we are treated to her beautiful photography which add another level to the senses she has already awoken. Too difficult to choose a favourite line or poem, I suggest you just read them all and immerse yourself in what makes Merril tick!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews