So Much Tending Remains

Emily Patterson's poems spring forth like new life. In her first chapbook, So Much Tending Remains, we witness a mother becoming and Patterson's intimate treatment of this transformation makes space for wonder, beauty, and grief. "Those days were for moving thin rivers / of milk from my body to yours," she writes. Gentle yet fierce, this collection unveils the complicated bond between mother and child and offers an original perspective on care and caregiving in our complicated, ever-changing world. As Patterson writes in the penultimate poem, "It's you / who will choose / how to move through / this world, into yourself."

Jessica Gigot, author of Feeding Hour and Flood Patterns



In So Much Tending Remains, Emily Patterson gives parents language for what often feels unnameable: the liminal spaces of the wonder of bearing our young. This book somehow feels both nostalgic and futuristic, and I will be returning to it again and again.

Shannon K. Evans, author of Rewilding Motherhood: Your Path to an Empowered Feminine Spirituality



In this stunning collection, Emily Patterson captures the subtleties, complexities, and profundities of motherhood through its many small moments in poem after perfectly crafted poem. Full of tenderness, love, and truth and built on insightful observations on nature, connection, and the intricacies of caring for others, these poems took my breath away and are held together by understated elegance of language that is irresistible. A beautiful and important collection for anyone interested in life and poetry.

Katharine Perry, founder and editor of The Mum Poem Press



In So Much Tending Remains, Patterson weaves gratitude into each poem in hushed breaths that seem almost too delicate to be lifted off the page, yet too essential to be laid bare without wings. This collection cradles echoes of thanks through detailed documentation and ripe description, connecting bodies to nature through graceful, rhythmic sound that's as "hazy as a lullaby," and implores readers to "remember there are / so many ways / to be mothered / by this world." So Much Tending Remains hums a "movement, born" and invites readers to reap the tenderness found in smallness.

Sonya Lara