Books by Amanda Williams

The poems in LITTLE HUMAN RELICS weave through various notions of home: a family farm, the mythic backdrop of Bavaria, a cityscape of urban noise and expectations, and quiet interiors of domestic life. Whether overhearing a lament about marriage at a nail salon, or standing vigil over the grave of a newly-buried horse, these poems invite readers to step over the page's threshold into a kitchen... a gothic cathedral... a lover's bed. These poems celebrate the ways in which devotion elevates all things in one's life to a position of reverence; a poem which marvels at the brutality of religious relics is placed alongside one which depicts the mending of a child's nightgown, and both the religious veneration and a small act of love inspire equal awe. As the title suggests, these poems are carefully captured moments that may have flown past, but instead are a constellation of objects, events, and characters which hold emotional truth and stark beauty. Like relics, they exist to both conjure memory as well as teach readers a little bit more about what it means to be human.