Brynn Saito's debut collection of poetry begins in a cityscape and ends
"deep in the cloud-filled valley," traversing myriad terrains-both
emotional and physical-as it weaves towards completion. From the bays of
Denmark to the deserts of California, Saito's searching lyricism gathers
stories of sudden departures, forced removals, and the journeys chosen
in between. Narrative selections inspired by childhood, sisterhood, lost
loves and newfound freedoms are cased by interludes of otherworldly
visions and persona poems spoken from many perspectives-animal and
otherwise. This is a book about the ever-present capacity for wonder,
transformation, and change: "The fighter is in me," claims the speaker
in the poem "Winter in Denmark," "and the future is in me." Inside every
moment of rage or loss-beneath tough city sidewalks and under the quiet
of a moonlit valley-is another moment, ripe with possibility and
foretelling the future sky.