The Only Home We Know

Author: Robin Chapman

Publisher: Tebot Bach (2019)

"In language luminous and true, with grace, good humor, generosity, and affectionate attention, Robin Chapman unflinchingly faces the local and global, even galactic disasters, that daily assail us. Casting a sober eye on the ills of our society, most of our own making—climate change, environmental degradation, inequality, bigotry, militarism—she refuses 'the beautiful poetry of grief' and instead affirms 'what heals, what carries us, through.' This inimitable book is ultimately a book of wonder and consolation, lovingly invoking the connectivity of the natural world—the only home we know—to reveal a wholeness at the heart of things. With, as she insists, 'the earth in its journey turning us again / toward the light. The text of good will arriving,' what can we do but embrace her joyful invitation to 'now, love, put on your clown nose / and dance with me under the wandering planets.'"

–Ronald Wallace

"The Only Home We Know is a book where memory functions as a spirit guide through the various details, wonders and terrors of our world. It is a book that takes a private hurt and makes it into a lyrical space where beauty is possible, is necessary. There is a tenderness and exuberance here that win me over, 'I'd mandate that every child at birth would be issued a drum,' the author says. Indeed. Bravo."

–Ilya Kaminsky