Learning to Drown Poems
Learning to Drown Poems by S. M. Stubbs, published by Gunpowder Press in 2025, is a collection of 112 pages written in English. This book presents a series of poems that delve into the complexities of memory, trauma, and the interplay between personal and historical experiences. Through a blend of thrilling tones and controlled forms, Stubbs crafts accessible verses that resonate with themes of survival and the impact of the past on our identities.
Readers will find that the poems in Learning to Drown illuminate the intimate connections between childhood memories and the aftermath of trauma. The collection invites exploration of geographical and ideological landscapes, offering a reflective journey through moments of both devastation and rebirth. With vivid imagery and metaphorical depth, Stubbs’s work serves as a testament to the human experience, encouraging readers to engage with the nuanced relationships between memory and identity.
Official synopsis Publisher
“Learning to Drown is that rare book of poems you read over and over again, savoring its texture, taste, and cohesion. SM Stubbs delivers poems that are thrilling in their tone and form and exhilarating in their stunning metaphorical leaps, yet remain tightly controlled, accessible, and thematically cohesive. He reminds us that ‘history is how we’re tethered to certain/stretches of land.’ In poem after gripping poem, he explores how our experience of the past-geographical, ideological, and personal-is essential and traumatic simultaneously. These are vigilant, luminous, necessary poems.”
– Steve Bellin-Oka
author of Instructions for Seeing a Ghost
“Like a ‘flame on a candle that won’t quit, ‘ the poems in Learning to Drown shine an incandescent and intimate light upon memory, childhood, and survival in the aftermath of trauma. From barstools to backyards in late summer, SM Stubbs brings his deeply perceptive and vulnerable observations to the most meaningful and devastating moments of his life. Told in unflinching detail, these poems are a testament, giving voice to the complicated journey from ruin to rebirth, dazzling us with ‘a beauty we have to tilt our heads to see.’”
– Vandana Khanna
author of Burning Like Her Own Planet
and Afternoon Masala
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