Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

In The Unfolding, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer invites us into the complex, mysterious threshold space we inhabit after loss-how that raw, vulnerable state can open us to depth and startle us with wonder, beauty, and sacred connection. Trommer dances between the somber and playful, between what is brokenhearted and uplifting, even between the solemn and the sexy. This is grief as catalyst, as thriving forest, where we learn to "trust the shade" and "walk deeper in."

In All the Honey, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer holdsboth fine, honest sensuality and slow explorations ofsoul. What is shared here is a way forward in life, a fierceopenness that refuses nothing--that knows damageand healing, darkness and radiance, sorrow and wingedresurgence, reflection and laughter and learning.

Naked for Tea keenly observes the quotidian and uncovers rare insight and wisdom into the human experience to inspire, enlighten, and enhance mutual understanding, as much as champion our dire need for harmonious coexistence.

Rosemerry's poetry speaks to our hearts, to our deepest knowing, to being here in each moment. She wakes us up again and again and reminds us that the sacred is right in front of us-in the night sky, in the moist earth, in the leaf at our feet. To be awake in this moment is our deepest potential; these poems bring us here with reverence and joy. Like all great teachers, Rosemerry points the way so clearly that we arrive, having forgotten the finger, and seeing only the moon. -Susie Harrington, meditation teacher, Desert Dharma With Hush, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer once again turns her attention toward insights gleaned from daily life, trusting that everything we encounter, from evergreens and bluebonnets to snapdragons and an achy back after shoveling snow, has something to teach us about being human. Throughout each of these exquisite, open-hearted, often sensual poems, she brings us along as she finds a kind of "renegade beauty" wherever she looks. "Let's go outside," she writes, "and praise/the light till the light is gone, and then praise the dark," modeling for us just the kind of radical gratitude we need in our literature, and in our lives right now. --James Crews, editor of Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection These are not quiet poems-they are forthright meditations on truth and courage, love and loss. They are life itself, revealed with compassion and grace. The poems in Hush speak like a healing meditation, a reminder of the beauty and sustenance in living with hearts and minds open. -Susan J. Tweit, plant biologist and author of Walking Nature Home In these quietly rendered poems, we are invited into the garden, and further into the wilderness-and find ourselves giving praise for that which is mud smudged and lumpy, for the sincerity of wild strawberries, and for the onslaught, which every gardener knows. Here Rosemerry shows us how one might endeavor to be the peace we want in the world. One comes away remembering that tending is at the heart of all healing. Because thorn bush. Because great blue heron. Because puddles. -Wendy Videlock, author of Nevertheless ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer's poetry has appeared in O Magazine, TEDx, in back alleys, on A Prairie Home Companion and on river rocks she leaves around town. Her poems have been described as "a deep oasis for all who seek to experience the sacred in every moment." Her most recent collection, Naked for Tea, was a finalist for the Able Muse Poetry Prize. Other recent books include Even Now, The Miracle Already Happening and The Less I Hold. She's included in the acclaimed anthology, Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, and leads mindfulness poetry discussion groups. She served as San Miguel County's first poet laureate and as Western Slope Poet Laureate (2015-2017) and was a finalist for Colorado Poet Laureate (2019). Since 2006, she's written a poem a day. Favorite themes in her poems include parenting, gardening, the natural world, love, thriving/failure and daily life. She's performed and taught poetry for Think 360, Craig Hospital, Ah Haa School for the Arts, Weehawken Arts, Camp Coca Cola, meditation retreats (with Susie Harrington), 12-step recovery programs, hospice, Deepak Chopra, Shyft, and many other organizations. She is the co-host of Emerging Form, a podcast on creative process (with Christie Aschwanden), co-host of the Talking Gourds Poetry Club (with Art Goodtimes), and co-leader of Secret Agents of Change (with Sherry Richert Belul). Though she earned an MA in English Language & Linguistics at UW-Madison, she still can't effectively pair socks. Favorite one-word mantra: Adjust.

Naked for Tea, a finalist in the Able Muse Book Award, is a uniquely uplifting and inspirational collection. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer's poems are at times humorously surreal, at times touchingly real, as they explore the ways in which our own brokenness can open us to new possibilities in a beautifully imperfect world. Naked for Tea proves that poems that are disarmingly witty on the surface can have surprising depths of wisdom. This is a collection not to be missed. PRAISE FOR NAKED FOR TEAMost anyone can make lemonade out of lemons. However, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer's welcoming voice, receptive heart, artistic mastery, and empathic vision become an alchemy of being. Out of mudslides, misunderstandings, the exploits of Wild Rose, deep loss, and chocolate cake that sinks in the center, she makes courage, care, joy, and compassion. When "what's the use" breaks down the back door, she is there, her great good soul encouraging us to sigh, laugh, renew our attention, and feel grateful for and delighted by any cake that sinks in the center. -- Jack Ridl, author of Practicing to Walk Like a Heron and Saint Peter and the GoldfinchHeart-thawingly honest, deliriously sexy, and compassionate down to the fingertips. A book of kindness and bewilderment and delight from one of our best poets. -- Teddy Macker, author of This WorldThere is still rich ore in the Colorado San Juans. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is a treasure. In an era of seeming nonstop, subject-matterless, first person mirror dancing at the Temple of Narcissus incomprehension, it is a delight to find a poet who can tell a crackling story laced with gorgeous imagery and euphony that will appeal to the ancient seats of learning: the heart, belly, and brain. These are poems Sappho and Horace would love: they delight and instruct. They can be read and sung, and they will echo from the proverbial Colorado mountaintops through the archetypal red rock canyons of your mind. Prepare thyself to be smitten and to fall in love. -- David Lee, Utah State Poet Laureate emeritus, author of Last Call and A Legacy of ShadowsReading Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is to float upon a never-ending waterfall of wonder . . . Pay attention. The elegance of her simplicity will blind you to her mastery. Then, she will let you fall, head over heels, in Love. With everything. -- Wayne Muller (from the foreword), author of Sabbath and Legacy of the HeartABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer lives in southwest Colorado and is the author of eleven collections of poetry. Her poems have appeared in O Magazine, Rattle.com, TEDx, in back alleys, on A Prairie Home Companion, and on river rocks she leaves around town. She's taught poetry for Think 360, Craig Hospital, Ah Haa School for the Arts, Weehawken Creative Arts, Camp Coca-Cola, meditation retreats, twelve-step recovery programs, hospice, and many other organizations. She's won the Fischer Prize, Rattle's Ekphrastic Challenge, the Dwell Press Solstice Prize, the Writer's Studio Literary Contest, and was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. As Colorado's Western Slope Poet Laureate (2015-2017), she created and curates Heard of Poets, an interactive poetry map. She earned her MA in English Language & Linguistics at UW-Madison. Since 2006, she's written a poem a day. One-word mantra: Adjust. Naked for Tea was a finalist for the 2017 Able Muse Book Award.