The Aqua Notebook

An invitation to discover poetry in the everyday experience. Following in the footsteps of David Lehman’s The Daily Mirror, Frank O’Hara, and Emily Dickinson, this collection offers a poetic journal crafted out of life.

Began in 2016 in an aqua notebook, this book of poetry chronicles one year. Locating the poetry and tiny moments of transcendence in our commonplace existence, Cotter crafts poetry from life, revealing the strange beauty that often exists in our daily lives.

Approachable, conversational, and immediate, this collection offers poems that are at times spontaneous, but always carefully crafted. Locating moments of real joy and peace, Cotter illuminates our lives, asking us to look carefully for the poetic that’s often in plain sight. She shows us how the smallest moments can elevate and inspire us. She writes, “Tonight I discovered what I discover / Each day: all along I wanted this / Exact miraculous thing.” These poems will challenge and inspire you.