Astonishments

by Tasha Cotter

Locating moments of astonishment in our everyday lives, Cotter seeks moments of quiet beauty and mystery to interrogate relationships, asking questions that offer no easy answers. Blending history and nature, these poems frequently move from images to larger questions about the human experience. There’s a darkness and deeper haunting that’s never far. “I wanted to write you/ Something pretty among the roses,/ But these ruddy bouquets want/ Me to tell you about how war begins.” These poems move from love to inheritance and heartbreak, deepening our understanding of what it means to be human. These poems offer a rediscovery of life in all its beauty and terror.

60 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 2020

About the author

Tasha Cotter's third collection of poetry Astonishments was released in 2020 with FutureCycle Press. Her collaboratively written novel Us, in Pieces (with Christopher Green) was released in July 2019. She lives in Coupeville, Washington.

Reviews

[FutureCycle Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are the publisher, so all of our authors get five stars from us. Excerpts:


CAPE ANN, SUMMER

He’d just sat up to watch the waves when he noticed the family arriving on the beach, not twenty feet away. A mother and father with their young son, who was just learning to walk, toddled between both of them, tentative, laughing. The man watched the mother, softly smiling; their soft voices carried a little on the breeze. He couldn’t make out the words, only the tone of happiness, the feeling of a good memory being made. How sweet it all looked, and how reasonably she took to motherhood. He could feel the heat of the sun on his back; his cheeks were turning pink in the broad afternoon light. His eyes landed on their little bag of beach toys, and he admired the soundness of the scene. He lay back down beside her, considering them, considering his own mistake.


A MARRIAGE

One day you will surely get tired
Of the checklists and monotonous tasks.
You'll get tired of me, too, and all
The colorful collars I put on you.
You, who would rather stay in and read
In bed. You, maker of ham and biscuits
Served with molasses. Marriage is
A hologram capturing the interference
Of our scattered light. Michelangelo
Destroyed most of his drawings before
He died, not wanting others to see
How difficult it had been for him,
The slow work of getting good. The work
Is easy, some days, even freeing. Yet some
Weeks I can’t get it right, and neither can
You. Together we fail the simple test
Of each other's happiness, but it’s what we love:
This holy work; this invention of us.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s hard for me to review poetry. The fact I read it and either thought, “I got it!?” or “What the? ... but I like it.” means 5-stars. If I throw up my hands and think, “I’ve got nothing.” then less stars.

[Eric Overby · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading The Aqua Notebook a couple times, I wanted to check out more of Tasha Cotter’s poetry. Astonishments did not disappoint. Her poetry does what all great poems do and make me want to read more from the author and inspire me to write more of my own.

[Richard Stuecker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely Poems

Tasha Cotter’s are wise, lovely and insightful. The reader is taken on a journey of small pleasures and large. Poetry lovers will adore these fine poems.