Blue Tarp

by Rachel Joy Welcher

Blue Tarp is a collection of poems that follows the innocence of a young teacher in a young marriage into the experience of hard conversations, loss and divorce. Using imagery from her childhood growing up in northern California, Rachel Joy Watson explores her grief and growing pains.

Genres: Poetry

48 pages, Paperback

Published December 23, 2016

About the author

Rachel Joy Welcher is an author, poet, and acquisitions editor at Baker Books.

Reviews

[Sarah Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel has written a stunning collection of poems that are not only literary masterpieces but emotionally profound and spiritually rich. In this small but weighty book she shows readers what it looks like to walk through grief and loss and pain with an open heart, to journey through the valley without succumbing to the darkness, and to hold tightly to what must define us while letting go of what we cannot contain. She is a visionary whose mastery of imagery will transform how you look at every day life, and whose gracious soul will reinvigorate your own outlook on life. In the closing poem, "Hello, Doctor", she writes "If its arthritis/my hands will be the first to go/and I'll have to find a new way/to touch this generation." She's already well on her way to doing so.

[Zaira · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short book of poetry is so wonderful. I really love how she uses words and how she creates poetry that is moving. It has the feeling of home and yet sophistication, like she didn't have to try hard and yet had to bear her soul.

[Rebekah Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these words that are a balm to my pain and bring food to my heart. Rachel writes with a heart that says what everyone needs to hear. It's okay to not be okay, but it will eventually be okay because it is real and we have a savior. Thank you Rachel, for speaking of a pain that I cannot understand and letting me rest in the promise of hope for my own.

Buy this book, and read it many times over.

[Stephen Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel Joy Watson Welcher writes vivid, lyrical, empathic verses of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. -- Stephen Page

[Jordan J. Andlovec · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of poems is an empathy generator, making even the most cold heart burst with blood. Rachel's poetry sits you right down next to her, like a good friend who doesn't know the word "pretense." This book will make you a kinder soul, like snail mail or a hot toddy before bed. And we all could be kinder souls nowadays.