Familiar at First, Then Strange
Familiar at First, Then Strange by Meredith Holmes is a poetry collection published by Pond Road Press in 2015. This edition features 56 pages and is presented in English. The book introduces readers to a distinctive voice that balances intellect and imagery, revealing a landscape rich with nature and personal reflection.
In this collection, Holmes explores themes of identity and the interplay between the familiar and the strange. The poems draw on her experiences and surroundings, from the “vaulted bones” of trees to the “blue biography of Luther Burbank.” Through vivid imagery and a deep connection to her roots, the poet navigates the complexities of life, capturing moments of beauty and introspection. The work reflects her journey from a small town to a city marked by immigrant experiences, offering a unique perspective within American poetry.
Official synopsis Publisher
Familiar at First, Then Strange, Meredith Holmes’ first full-length book, introduces readers to a voice in which intellect and image vie for position, a voice of constant surprises, of startling honesty and intensity. The voice is rooted in nature, in the “vaulted bones” of trees. “I was fostered by an American Sycamore,” she tells us. She “body surfs a blue biography of Luther Burbank,” as “locusts harmonize in the tulip trees.” We learn of a double life: “the tone and timbre / of everything flowed through me.” Holmes pulls the quotidian down to the mysteries that silence holds. Ancestered by New England, nurtured by a small town in the East, the poet found herself in a city “soaked in immigrant grief.” There, in Cleveland, she forged poems into an American voice of scope and originality. And, it must be said, of great beauty.
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