Homespun Mercies

My aunt once told me she dreamed her house/Had a secret room, one which held everything/She loved most, poet DJ Hill writes. This debut collection throws open a door to the "secret room" all of us keep inside ourselves. Hill examines "what life requires" of us, along with the ways real lives work, in an arresting juxtaposition of music and poetry. The result is honest, joyful, and direct, but make no mistake: Hill also has an edge. Like the poem "Slip" where a woman plans her life exhaustively only to drive to work and realize she's forgotten to put on her dress, these poems are revealing, humorous, and wise about the complexities and contradictions of human hearts. - Katrina Vandenberg, author of The Alphabet Not Unlike the World and Atlas.