Take Something When You Go

by Dawn Leas

Navigating the open highways of our life decisions, Take Something When You Go shows us how to let go while still holding on to love, memory, family, and friends. We can learn to identify our many beginnings and endings, and come to terms with loss and renewal. And while it’s always okay to acknowledge what’s in the rear-view, we must constantly strive to move the odometer forward.

112 pages, Paperback

Published April 13, 2016

Reviews

[Jeff Warchal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dawn Leas effectively guides the reader from a simple yet rich story to an elegant complexity which make the poems so memorable! For instance, the idea that “going back allows one to move forward” is supported by various concrete examples such as “dancing with stillness on a melancholy night.” Perhaps stillness is needed to gain new and improved perspective in life.

I was so glad to come across this treasure!

[Sarah Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed supporting a local author and getting to read this fabulous collection of poetry! The themes of loss, regret, love, family, and motherhood were so compelling to read about. I especially liked Leas' concise style of wording and how she even eliminated prepositions sometimes, but the poem was still on point without them.

[Amye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dawn's language is beautiful, as always. But it is the raw meat of these poems, the poet as mother, as wife, as lover, as daughter, as woman, that carries this collection. With heartbreaking honesty Dawn examines the relationships with her family and pulls the reader to her side as we see her boys navigate subway systems, travel the globe, and grow into the men she had prayed for them to become. Among my favorite poems in this collection were: Slipstream, Bonfire, and Crying Summer. There's an ache to this collection that is soothed by the book's end. A beautiful journey of the heart.

[Nicholas Trandahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of contemporary poetry from Dawn Leas! I feel like these poems afforded me numerous glimpses into a life and all the beauty, frustration, wonder, and melancholy that can be found there. Leas is another one of those precious honest poets that write with sincerity and a keen non-judgmental eye focused on the world in which she exists. A wonderful collection, and I look forward to more.