Moving through sections that are roughly chronological-teens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties-Of a Certain Age explores the unfurling of a life, from loss of innocence to contemplation of death, from bemusement at life’s gaffes to bewilderment as life’s invariables slip away. Tricia Gates Brown reminds us to tune in-to the natural world, to the transcendent, to relationships, to the decades and epochs of one’s ordinary life, with wonder and courage. Reverence, at any age, is no where but here.
Of a Certain Age invites readers into Brown’s poetic wonder and disappointments. Each poem adds a new layer of intelligence and canny magnetism while a subtle sense of faith and spirituality also weave through the poems-notwithstanding love, tenderness, kinetic energy, sensuality, and heartbreak. Of A Certain Age is a wonderful collection for readers coming of age, especially for those in the latter half of life.
Emmett Wheatfall, author of With Extreme Prejudice and Our Scarlet Blue Wounds
Take a deep breath and “strip of clothing, dip / like a ladle into [the] blue” of Tricia Gates Brown’s Of a Certain Age. “Oh, the wonders in pen / and ink!” she writes, over and over weaving words into unforgettable, clear images. Brown so gently, intimately whispers these stories that you are likely to feel like a best friend, leaning in so you don’t miss a single carefully crafted phrase. So much life and hope woven throughout the destruction and complications that mark every age. Brown’s collection is a breathtaking inspiration.
Joann Boswell, author of Cosmic Pockets and Meta-Verse!
Tricia Gates Brown’s Of a Certain Age considers the astounding incongruities that constitute a life, from the birth of a daughter to the anticipated death of a now-old lover. Confessional in nature, the poems in Of a Certain Age also challenge the reader to really see nature, attuning our hearts and minds to the fecund world and to what that world can reveal about living (and dying) well. Readers of a certain age-that is, those just past pre-middle age-will especially resonate with Brown’s observations because we have enough experience to know that “the ground / we stand on is really nothing but grace.”
Melanie Mock, author of Finding Our Way Forward
Tricia Gates Brown’s poetry collection, Of a Certain Age, presents narrative poems that are particular yet universal. I found myself identifying with many of them. Her poems, often lyrical in tone, embody “the eloquence of memory,” as one puts it. I frequently found myself jolted and delighted with an unusual metaphor or turn of phrase. We see a whole range of human experiences as Brown remembers and explores relationships stretching from coming-of-age, through relational disaster, to “almost healed,” tentatively approaching wholeness.
Nancy Thomas, author of Close to the Ground, poetry editor at Friends Journal
Profound and original isn’t too much praise for Tricia Gates Brown’s Of a Certain Age. Here you will find both in abundance alongside passion, wit, and courage. These poems connect us to the commonplace and the divergent, exploring the innerness of both; they are tuned to the rueful and the serious, filling the tensions between the two and often elicit heartrending surprise, demanding the rereading of a line or whole poem to experience again their emotional rush and insights into life’s intensity and comfort.
Ed Higgins, author of Near Truth Only
Unflinching, tender, and exquisite, Tricia Gates Brown weaves vulnerability and insight in such a way that painful moments shine with wisdom, and joyful ones quiver with reverence. Her poems are rich contemplations on love and loss and a wholehearted celebration of beauty and aliveness. Without ever saying so, the quiet courage of this collection invites us to fully embrace our lives and humanness.
Kai Madrone, author of “The New Story” newsletter
Tricia Gates Brown’s
poetry has appeared in The Christian Century Magazine, Friends Journal, and ANTAE Journal, among other publications; and her debut novel, Wren, won a 2022 Independent Publishers Award Bronze Medal. By trade, she is an editor and co-writer. She also writes a column at Patheos titled “About Religion, Doubt, and Why They Matter.” For fun, she creates visual art as a ceramicist, textile artist, and occasional painter. She resides in the Willamette Valley with her partner, the poet, Ed Higgins.