Between My Spine & the River by Taylor Hammon Los (Ridge Books) – Reviewed by Vikki C.

Through its startling motifs, Between My Spine & the River considers a young mother’s fears and desires alongside a sublime ecological landscape under threat and indifference of mankind. Hammon Los writes presciently from a complex world of nature and myth that both nurtures and consumes the speaker’s body, vividly shaping concerns of pregnancy, miscarriage and rupture. These elegiac poems rage and recede with Earth’s circadian rhythms to reimagine the often unseen trials of a mother’s body and psyche. From deeply embodied origins, the poet conjures the profound thin spaces between womb and shadowland, fairytale and fever dream. 

Both exile and long-awaited homecoming, this collection captures one woman’s pained childbearing and isolation with beauty and brutal honesty. We witness that which surrounds her haunting “Watershed Lullaby”, is a powerful torrent of maternal instinct. A singular voice of survival, reclamation and ultimately faith — to surmount the chaos that birthed Gaia herself. “You will know when it’s ready. Let the seed detach with the wind. Let the seed become its own flower.” 

Between My Spine & the River is published by Ridge Books and is available on Amazon.