Beauty breathes though each poem in Claire Coenen's wondrous, open-hearted debut collection. She sees the world through “singing eyes,” and makes of each closely observed moment a sacred space that we can step into beside her. This book “will keep you, attend to your wounds, and teach you to root,” as she says in one of her luminous poems. To read The Beautiful Keeps Breathing is to experience the joy of a poet coming into the fullness of her own voice, “fierce and free” at last.
— James Crews editor of bestselling anthologies, The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope
Collage art by Claire Coenen; music by Sally Coenen
From the author:
The Beautiful Keeps Breathing is, in many ways, a long thank you note. While writing the poems in this book, I connected with deep gratitude for the writers, mentors, and loved ones whose presence and language has given me refuge and hope over the years.
The arc of a breath inspires the three-part structure of this collection. Part I, “Inhale,” takes the reader through a series of poems interested in innocence, family of origin, and delight. In Part II, “Hold,” the tone intensifies, and the poems wrestle with disillusionment, insecurities, grief, and darkness. The poems of Part III, “Exhale,” point toward integration, creative joy, fierceness, and freedom.
The Beautiful Keeps Breathing gives voice to the wildness of the human experience and the eternal cycles of life, death, and life again.
Praise for The Beautiful Keeps Breathing
The poems in this collection are thoughtful and elegant. Intelligent and engaging, Coenen’s is a powerful lyric voice that draws on personal connections and associations with a strong aesthetic focus.
— Adele Kenny
poetry editor of Tiferet Journal
Open this book to any page and be pulled in, transported, and lifted by the everything of Coenen's words.
— Julia Fehrenbacher
author of Staying in Love & founder of Write Yourself Free
Filled with red-headed girls, wise women, morning glories, and warthogs. The Beautiful Keeps Breathing is a testament to a life open to wonder.
— Julie Sumner
author of Meridian