What Does Not Return

by Tami Haaland

What Does Not Return examines dementia and caregiving against the expansive backdrop of the rural inland West. Through a process of loss and letting go, the poems turn away from "what cannot be undone" in favor of what the present moment reveals through dreams, art, and encounters with animals.

Genres: Poetry

78 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2018

About the author

Tami Haaland is the author of four books of poetry: If I Had Said Beauty (Lost Horse Press, 2025), What Does Not Return (Lost Horse Press, 2018) When We Wake in the Night (WordTech Editions, 2012), and Breath in Every Room (2nd edition, Red Hen Press 2021; 1st edition, Story Line Press, 2001), winner of the Nicholas Roerich First Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Ascent, Consequence, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, High Desert Journal, The Ecopoetry Anthology, Healing the Divide, and many other periodicals and anthologies. Haaland¿s work has also been featured on The Writer¿s Almanac, Verse Daily, and American Life in Poetry. She was the recipient of a Governor's Humanities Award, an Artist Innovation Award from Montana Arts Council, and is a former Montana's Poet Laureate.

Reviews

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haaland manages to capture the struggle with her mother's dementia with an amount of grace and dignity not many would be able to contain during a time like this. Each poem tells a remarkable story one would not soon forget.

[Caitlin]

Gentle in the right ways while also being honest about the limitations of loving someone who is losing their abilities, and the quiet interior experience of loss.

[Curt Bobbitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful, touching, clever poems. Each poem fits on one page.

[Brian Wasserman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think my biggest beef with many poetry books is that a poet doesnt make a theme, there is no central theme or style to the poems and the poems have disparate subjects that are seemingly unrelated

[Beverly J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the feels...