It is rare to find a collection so grounded in the manifold meanings of motherhood—in all its anxiety, ambivalence, and joy. From the aches and fears of pregnancy, through the pain and relief of childbirth, to the perplexing questions and worries of parenting, Rebekah Denison Hewitt grapples with what it is to make a human (and to sometimes lose one), “the baby a creature / in bloom / the mother / a lotus eater.”
Closing with the counsel “Do not be afraid. / Rinse your heart out. Proceed,” these poems give readers many reasons to fear—health issues, genetic deformities, postpartum depression, gun violence, and car accidents. Yet always lurking underneath are light, optimism, and a stubborn willingness to soldier on. Celebrating the stories, myths, and personal histories that shape the experience of modern motherhood, Creature in Bloom expands the conversation around what it means to be a mother.
Arvustused
"Rooted in the physical and emotional stages of early motherhood, these poems candidly navigate pregnancy, loss, and parenting against the backdrop of gun violence and other tragedies."- (Publishers Weekly, Spring 2026 Preview)
These multifaceted, fierce, and tender revelations on pregnancya baby extracted / like a bad tooth, a little unicorn souland on mothering in a world marked by loss and gun violence cement Hewitts arrival as a captivating, self-aware poet. Creature in Bloom will both gut and heal you when you least expect it. - Cynthia Marie Hoffman
"Hewitt gives voice to the mundane and monstrous challenges of being not only a parent but a person in this worldand urges us to keep on. Blessing and reckoning, elegy and prayer, this book is a testament to the everyday courage of mothersthat word for strength born from the heart." - Leila Chatti
How to Create a Whole Human
Confession to Libby
Karyotype
Elegy for What Almost Was
In One Version
Something in the Water
Would You Rather
In the Presence of So Much Water, Hagar Tries to Remember Thirst
Fourth of July at a Lake in the Midwest
Knowledge at 20 Weeks
Unicorn Soul
The Accident
At 32 Weeks, a Darkening
On Discovering the Ob/Gyn Has Won the Golden Scalpel Award
Francis X. Carmody Comes to Me in a Dream
Epistemology
At 39 Weeks I Write a Poem About Kira Johnson
So Many Things Are Like Giving Birth on Ambien
Once, Libby Told Me She Had Recovered Her First Memory
Breech
Lots Wife Speaks of Turning
Salt and Light
Dear Libby, Please Tell Me If Im Remembering Right
En Caul
Three Ways of Moving Through Time
Eve Speaks from Outside the Belly of the Fish
While Up at 4 am With the Baby, She Remembers Eating Pineapple in Costa Rica
Mother and Child as Art Installation
Salt and Light
Pantoum of Divided Attention
Baba Yaga as Ars Poetica
Mother/Stepmother
God as Rumpelstiltskin
Early Dark
The Meadow
Smoke
Good Guy, Bad Guy, Monster
How to Take Your Own Advice
Acknowledgements
Notes
Rebekah Denison Hewitt is a poet, librarian, and educator. She holds an MFA from the University of WisconsinMadison, where she was a Martha Meier Renk Distinguished Graduate Fellow. Her work has appeared in publications such as Narrative, The Rumpus, Poetry Northwest, and Bellevue Literary Review. She lives in Wisconsin with her family.
