Rain, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Daughter
Poems
by H. G. Dierdorff
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Pub Date Dec 03 2024 | Archive Date Dec 31 2024
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Description
Rain, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Daughter is a story about leaving religion and coming of age in a world of accelerating climate apocalypses and environmental loss. In her debut collection of poems, H. G. Dierdorff interweaves an investigation of wildfires in Eastern Washington with a personal account of growing up in Christian fundamentalism, calling our attention to the violent histories undergirding both.
“I want you to touch the fire / sparking from my lips” the opening sonnet commands, daring the reader to abandon the safety of analytical distance and draw near to the moment of ignition itself. The voice that emerges is incessant, ecstatic, explosive. Fire erupts from every page, multiplying into rage, desire, judgement, responsibility, and renewal.
A love song to the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a dramatic portrait of a daughter struggling to find her place in her family, and a philosophical exploration of the limits of language and belief, this collection demands the necessity of both pleasure and grief as responses to a world on fire.
Advance Praise
“Rife with environmental disaster and social unrest, Rain, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Daughter looks with compassion and rage upon the violence human beings wreak upon the landscape and upon each other. Skirting a familial past which is never absent from the present, this book is an unwavering debut on behalf of us all.”
—Claudia Keelan, professor of English, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, editor of Interim, and author of eight collections of poetry, including We Step into the Sea
“Dierdorff records and resists imposed identities: daughter, self, Anthropocene dweller, settler colonist in the U.S. West, sinner fallen from family belief. Sonnets accrete and interlace, the way “fungi penetrate and sheathe tree roots,” forsaking narrative for simultaneity—how ancient floods formed fluvial sediments nurturing monocrops of Western wheat, how an old story about a rib-formed woman suffers the poet not to speak. The poet grants herself permission by setting a match to old certainties. It is love that fuels the fires raging through these poems, love expressed in this work’s careful craft, its networked, allusive language, its musicality and lyric beauty—love not as a received form, but as a constantly renewing creative act.
—Allison Cobb, author of Plastic: An Autobiography
“Like “concentric rings radiating from the heartwood’ of the forest, this stunning debut incises the page with deep and virtuosic music. Perched at the edge of our climate apocalypse, these poems find, between wildfires, a little room, a little grace, to sing of memory and desire. From the “burnt pines” of the American West, Dierdorff constructs a compelling poetics of entwined personal, historical, and geologic memory. These poems sift, from “[the] smoldering coals” of spiritual and environmental crisis, astonishing new language.”
—Kiki Petrosino, author of White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia
“There are few books I love as fiercely as I love H. G. Dierdorff's Rain, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Daughter, and there are few first books as ambitious. "What's/underneath?" it asks about everything, from the layer of duff beneath a Ponderosa pine to the history of fire suppression that has supercharged Western wildfires to the roles assigned to women in conservative Christian communities. Debunking American myths about climate, nature, gender, sex, history, family, faith, and nation, Dierdorff has written her coming-of-age story as a reckoning with climate crisis, intertwining her intellectual, aesthetic, and sexual maturation with its ecological contexts. Combining formal rigor and experimentation, personal lyric and documentary poetics, Dierdorff has penned a book unlike any other: a feminist field guide to the Anthropocene, a secular hymn "for the uncertainty of what will grow" after wildfire, a sonnet sequence whose true beloved is the imperiled world.”
—Brian Teare, author of Poem Bitten by a Man
Marketing Plan
• Education about how settler-colonialism, land management, fire suppression, and climate change all contribute to the increasingly severe drought, extreme heat, and severe wildfires in the West.
• Entertainment through a compelling coming-of-age narrative grappling with questions of religion, sexuality, and familial belonging
• Conversation with current events and urgent political questions—such as the violence of American nationalism, the climate crisis, the 2020 wildfire season, the rise of the religious right, etc.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781647791711 |
| PRICE | $17.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 80 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Rupkatha B, Reviewer
✨️Book Review✨️
Thanks to netgalley for the ARC!
'Rain, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Daughter' is an enthralling collection of poetry from HG Dierdorff. The poet's range is evident as her works vary from sonnets, prose poems, free verses, to concrete poetry, each one more unique and engaging.
The subject matter is interesting ranging from climate change, the poet's struggles with mental health, and her fundamentalist christian upbringing.
Surprisingly, in spite of climate change being the central theme of this collection, the poems such as 'Sonnet with a mouth full of dollar bills' and 'A Classical Christian Academy' were the cream of the crop as they were an honest and raw exploration of the poet's struggles in lives. On the other hand, poems like 'Rain, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Daughter' felt flat because of their use of recurring motifs such as ponderosa pine trees, burning Forests, and mother-daugjter relationships.
Oftentimes, it felt as if the poet just wrote words without any depth behind them. The subject matter though interesting was never fully explored in a satisfying manner. For instance, 'Sonnet with my shirt off' doesn't come off as a celebration of femininity but a textbook example of uncritical 'white' feminism which boils womanhood down to body parts, and bodily processes.
Further on, in a single poem the poet brought colonization, and the expulsion of indigenous peoples from their land which was an amazing theme that she could've explored further but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I think it's extremely important for white poet's living on indigenous lands to acknowledge the fact that forest fires, and widespread climate change affect minority communities much more than it does them. Bringing it up as a one-liner to make a poem sound deeper than it actually is (considering that the poem doesn't engage with the theme at all except to amplify the poet's suffering) feels shallow and disingenuous.
On the brighter side, I do believe that H.G Dierdorff is a poet with a beautiful and unique poetic voice. Her poems are written with emotion, not just to be shared as snippets on instagram but to be discussed as pieces of art. One of my favourites from this collection was 'As The West Coast Burns (IV)' where the poet's narrative style, and structure reminds me of 'The Signpost' by Edward Thomas. Here's a comparison:
"Two voices, one gentle, one mocking: Stop making your suffering more than it is."
~ As the west coast burns (IV)
"A voice says: You would not have doubted so
At twenty. Another voice gentle with scorn
Says: At twenty you wished you had never been born."
~ The Signpost
'Rain, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Daughter' is a collection of poetry worth checking out, and definitely worth reading. Especially for those who have been disappointed by the current state of modern poetry, this collection will surely rekindle your faith in the poets of the 2020's. Overall 3/5 stars which I consider to be an above average rating as this collection was a balance of wonderful emotion-filled poems and poems that fell a bit flat due to their insistence upon half-hearted metaphors over actual substance. Still, I really enjoyed this collection, and I shall keep an eye out for Dierdorff's future collections.
Reviewer 1262865
*Rain, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Daughter* by H.G. Dierdorff is a mesmerizing fantasy that weaves elemental magic with a deeply emotional journey. Dierdorff’s storytelling is rich and immersive, creating a world that feels both enchanting and perilous. A captivating read that balances epic adventure with heartfelt character development.
Catriona M, Reviewer
"Inside my body, the doll house floating / on the coffee table", Dierdorff writes in the title poem. "Outside, the seconds between light and sound / unravel whether or not God counts them." (16*)
"Rain, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Daughter" is an exploration of climate change and conservative religion—the wildfires within and without. I am finding that I like this sort of collection, where one or two themes wrap around each other and turn themselves inside and out; some of the stories here are about the ravages of religion and others about the ravages of flame and still others about, let's say, the burn scars left by some iterations of religion.
"My parents named me Hannah after the woman in the Bible. Hannah / the woman who weeps and will not eat. The woman who disappears / from the story after she gives birth to a son. Hannah the woman who / prays so the priest cannot hear, her lips moving without sound. He / thinks she is drunk." (58)
The collection draws heavily on references and inspiration, some of which I can catch and others of which will be easter eggs for, say, readers who have a better knowledge of the Bible than I do. But I think this is one that will speak to a lot of readers: language complex enough to require some thought, but with themes more and more in the news and relevant to so many people. Some of the poems toward the end especially started to lose me (I like poetry—well, some poetry—but I freely admit that I am no kind of expert, and sometimes I can't quite muddle through), but it hit the mark between readable and tricky more often than not, and when the book ended I found myself sorry that there weren't just a few more pages to turn.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Reviewer 1431296
I found this to be a great collection of poetry, the author explored topics of climate change and struggles with their own mental health. I found this collection to be eye opening and very educational.
Lyra B, Reviewer
A compelling debut collection of poetry. Dierdorff powerfully interweaves the political and personal. Each poem shows the difficulty of being in an individual in the age of climate change and the rising concerns of fascism. All these themes tie further into a backdrop of religious trauma which is interesting to see discussed. Dierdorffs poems are carefully structured and a joy to read. While I did a bit too long I broadly enjoyed the collection and the exploration of themes. Once they have confidence to say what needs to be said and walk away, we will have a powerful and evocative poet in Dierdorff. But it remains that this is a very impressive debut
Breanna I, Reviewer
I don't really love this style of autobiographical poetry, I prefer a little more separation between the poet and the poems. Though I do think this is generally well written, it has a nice flow to it and some interesting imagery and plays around with form a bit. But overall, not my cup of tea, though I'm sure others will enjoy it.
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