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Growing Pains

 

You gave me a seed
tiny and dark

It sat curled in my palm
like a reproach
My visions of a
voluptuous harvest
stripped of the
imminent arrival
I had planned

High hopes grounded
in a parody
of the leaves that
would not be seen for months

I did not understand then
that the seed
was not the gift.

–  from Life And How To Do It: Poems for Humans

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Life and How to Do It is a compilation of some of the poems I’ve written over the past nine years, accompanied by a selection of my sea photography. The poems are about the human experience and its paradoxes; knowing that you know and feeling like you don’t, heartbreak, mending, moments of clarity, noticing things and trying to make sense of them, love, dreams, growing pains, the seductive pull of the dark. 

Words are a way to play in the world, a way to translate celebration, despair, and everything in between into something shareable, through which we can connect. My hope is that you will not read these words as mine, but as ours, or as simply words that carry a message for you.

“Reading this collection is like a day at the beach for the landlocked soul. Tara wields the language of water, air, and light so very, very well.”
Kristen Kalp

“So many of these writings feel like a cross between Shel Silverstein and Mary Oliver, and all – ultimately – bring me Home again. I’m always There, but sometimes need to be led back, by the hand or soul, and these poems do just that.”
Angel S.