Singing Riptide

“To believe in a poem is to believe / in the mind at work” is what Cheryl Wilder asserts in this deep and captivating journey. And it was Keats who said that the poet must be “capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” And it is Cheryl Wilder who, writing about her own tragedy realizes that her “journey ends / without passing through the gate” of finality and certainty, and, like Keats, she knows that to write this one must keep “the whole body in conversation” as it ranges over times and places she visits. Which is to say that Singing Riptide is an intense book of memory and regret, but also a marvelous triumph in the fact that her poetry itself creates a way for both poet and reader of this rewarding book to discover what Ross Gay would also call “unabashed joy,” and yes, redemption.

—Richard Jackson, author of Footprints: Poems

There’s a crash in all of our lives, whether it is the result of bad choices or circumstances we don’t control. How we live through our hardships determines who we become. Cheryl Wilder’s Singing Riptide is a book for all who have fallen and all who have had the strength to get back up. As the poet confronts a difficult past of loss and uncertainty, she learns to accept life’s gifts—children, love, forgiveness, the ocean’s coming in and going out—and learns to “reveal / myself to myself so I can / walk into a moment where I am ready to allow / someone to love me.” This collection is a gift of recovery and forgiveness, a testament that despite the very worst, the very best will prevail.

—Barbara Presnell, author of Otherwise, I’m Fine

In Singing Riptide, Cheryl Wilder walks “hand-in-hand with the past that cannot be changed,” holding up a mirror to herself with unflinching honesty while wrestling with questions like how much punishment is enough, when we’re allowed to walk away, and most vulnerably, what might be waiting on the other side of self-judgement. This collection reminds us that transformation requires both being witnessed and loved by others and, crucially, never abandoning ourselves as we learn to gently “strip shame’s tendrils,” no matter how long it takes.

—Nicole Gulotta, author of Wild Words: Rituals, Routines, and Rhythms for Braving the Writer’s Path

In Singing Riptide, Cheryl Wilder understands that the body holds trauma and memory, and that the shadow of shame can pop up anywhere–in a mirror, at the grocery store, or walking along the beach. Forgiveness is an iterative process, one that takes honesty, many turns, and deep inner work: “It’s hard to know when enough / is enough, whether it’s time to enjoy / the sea at your doorstep, or dig.” She brings the reader along as she reflects on conflicts and regrets and finds solace and beauty in relationships, in books and nature, in solitude, and in appreciation for the small things that save us daily. And of course, in writing itself. “Where else / can I find forgiveness / but in the repetition of pen / on paper?” These hard-wrought poems show us grace and self-awareness as the poet discovers acceptance of what has been, what endures, and what continually unfolds.

—Debra Kaufman, author of Outwalking the Shadow

Before she could forgive herself, Cheryl Wilder needed to know she was worthy.

“Singing Riptide is an intense book of memory and regret, but also a marvelous triumph in the fact that her poetry itself creates a way for both poet and reader of this rewarding book to discover what Ross Gay would also call ‘unabashed joy,’ and yes, redemption.” —Richard Jackson

Wilder’s “shatteringly direct” approach, first seen in Anything That Happens—the collection that chronicles the root of Wilder’s shame and how she navigated the immediate aftermath—welcomes readers into her internal process from personal, all-consuming shame; through the intergenerational forgiveness that made self-forgiveness possible; to self-realization and belonging.