A Jar For The Jarring

by Candice Louisa Daquin

Candice Louisa Daquin's first book of poetry began her journey into the psyche and transformation of women from girl to adulthood. Her revelations about this process, through pain, healing, insight, love and loss, are both truths and metaphors many can relate to, and have been expressed in the beautiful language of a poet, to illustrate our shared experience of life, both humorous, frightening, puzzling and tragic, but ultimately redemptive through the power of love. A jar for the jarring is the first in a series of books examining what it is to exist and experience life. This is the Third Edition published by Palpitate Press.

Genres: Poetry

86 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2015

About the author

Managing Editor / Lit Fox Books, Austin, TX
Previously Senior Editor / Indie Blu(e) Publishing / 8 years
Associate Editor / Raw Earth Ink
Associate Editor / Queer Ink
Poetry Editor / Writers Resist
Content Editor / Life & Legends Magazine
Poetry Editor / Tint Journal
Poetry Editor / Parcham Literary Journal
Former Poetry Editor / The Pine Cone Review Former Writer-in-Residence / Borderless Journal
Former Editorial Partner / BlackBird Press
Guest-Editor / SETU International Journal

Candice Daquin has edited and written poetry and poetry reviews for the last decade, as well as working in the publishing world and as a Psychotherapist. She has a background in psychotherapy, primarily with trauma survivors. She devotes a good amount of time to writing and editing and is an ardent believer in equity for all.

Daquin is Co-Editor of SMITTEN This Is What Love Looks Like, an award-winning lesbian poetry anthology and co-editor of THE KALI PROJECT, an award-winning collection of feminist Indian writers and Co-Editor of We Will Not Be Silenced, an anthology of poets and writers and artists responding to the #metoo movement. The anthology reached #1 positions on Amazon best-seller lists for months. Daquin also Co-Edited As The World Burns (an anthology on #metoo and #Trump and #Covid-19), and has edited many authors works as well as reviewing or writing forewords.

Daquin's most recent collection of poetry Tainted by the Same Counterfeit came out in 2022. Her debut novel The Cruelty published November 25th, 2025. FlowerSong Press.

As a queer immigrant woman, Daquin's support of others is how she gets her joy.

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Reviews

[Candice Daquin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this so I'm biased. I'm very happy with it though. It encapsulates my thoughts via poetry into a 90 some page emotional journey, I hope you will enjoy it.

[Eric Syrdal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Candice Daquin is a poet of the highest order. She brings alive emotions in her work, so powerful they cannot be overlooked. She is able to capture the full weight of serious subjects in a format that can only be described as "beautiful" She writes from the heart and possesses a multilayered depth that will always reveal a deeper meaning each time you read her. I find her words powerful and razor sharp and my heart always returns for a chance to bleed along with her.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Candice’s first poetry book has a unique take on a confessional style, and the lay out works well for it. She merges darkness and melancholy into a tale of transformation from child to adult, touching on the trials that came with the evolution. The book contains beautiful, heart wrenching prose and poetry that excels because of the author’s grasp on the language, her excellent use of imagery, and the exquisite descriptions she uses to reel the reader in. She left me breathless with the subtle madness in her word play. And once I began the book, I couldn’t put it down until finishing it. Her words are both wholly personal and yet brilliantly relatable. You can feel the pain in her lines as if it were seeping from your own pores onto your skin and across her pages. She turns metaphor into magic with flashbacks and nature references. I was particularly drawn to her stream of conscious pieces, one word feeding and expanding upon the next. And I fell in love with two of her longer pieces, Verbi and Damask, for the bold and powerful way they gripped my soul. Her words are brave and raw and pure, and this book will be the first of many I read by her.

[Didi Artier · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'ai lu ceci en premier. Cela m'a déchiré avec émotion. Je ressens vraiment l'émotion de Candice Louisa. Elle est capable de dessiner des émotions. Il y a des poètes. Il y a des écrivains. Il y a des amoureux. Candice est tous les trois.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first became aware of the power of Candice Louisa Daquin’s poetry and prose through her blog, TheFeatheredSleep. Daquin is a prolific writer who parses words much as a desert nomad economizes water. She goes deep into the heart and mines the hurts we have all experienced, and then goes a step further, hinting at levels of pain that few of us have experienced, much less endured.

Her slim book, A jar for the jarring, is a collection of wisdom. Her poetry looks simple, but with carefully selected words she shapes ideas in rich layers of metaphor and symbolism that soar with lyric beauty and cadence.

Not schooled in the art of poetry, I confess that some of Daquin's prose leaves me confounded, confused, and puzzling over how it was put together: why a period here, a capital letter there? But it is, perhaps, those moments of wonder that keep me reading, rereading, looking for meanings and relationships, and always rendered breathless by the beauty of the words as they float, unbridled across the page. "Bluelids" is an example of words beautifully linked in a rhythm and cadence that incites admiration but begs a basket of interpretations.

Then there are other poems, that send pointed arrows into the air; arrows that know their target and find their mark on the first read.
"of all the things I lost
all the things I gained
from the emergence of a woman
from a year of living pain".

Even when the meanings come boldly and unveiled, the prose is so lovely that it invites many readings. Daquin's topics are as diverse as corals on a reef. Each poem is like a new life to live. A jar for the jarring is the perfect bedside book, to be savored like rich Belgian truffles, one or two pieces at a time, just before floating into the dream world.

It matters not if you are an aficionado of poetry or are afraid of poetry; this book will delight your senses and stimulate your imagination.

[Richard Ankers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daquin is that rare commodity, a person who writes what she wishes how she wishes. Her work is all the more refreshing because of it. Her poetry grips you by the throat and does not let go, delivered with brutal honesty and unerring quality. I was pleased with the amount of poems contained within this volume as so many poetry books feel and are padded; this bursts at the seams. Personal high points included A Little Death and A Jar For The Jarring from which the book takes its title.
For anybody wishing to see the world through the eyes of another, or just welcomes a really good read, then I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Poetry of the highest standard. I shall return for more of Daquin's follow up volumes.

[Susi Bocks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found Candice's work on Wordpress fairly quickly after establishing my site - I Write Her. I fell in love with her style, her raw emotion and how the feelings always just poured out on the page in all her pieces. After continuing to read her work, I was intrigued about what she had produced and decided to purchase this book. I've since added ALL her books to my wishlist on Amazon! It was not always an easy read (*so emotional) but so worth going through it. My two favorite poems are "Who leaves behind" and "Destiny". I'm looking forward to the rest of my literary journey with her. :)