In this debut collection of poems, Tina Lear sends some tenderness to the little girl hiding in plain sight, the woman sleeping around long after it isn't fun anymore, the mother screaming at her kids, the wife trying to jump out the window of a marriage on fire, and the daughter watching Jeopardy with her ancient, bedridden mother.
Lear's work stings with resonance and pulls laughter from the darkness. She tells the whole truth with a fractal memory. Divided into six sections, her poems range from a swim in the river of youth, to the hard road of marriage and motherhood, all the way to waning days of very old age, and the nectar that comes from all of it-ending with a whimsical look at possible worlds.
“Partial Views” is a love letter to all the ways in which we try and fail and try again to meet our reflection in the mirror and whisper yes.
