Shades of a Woman

A life should burn brighter than the stars above. It's a shout of glee on windswept peaks, prying a chest wide enough to see the pulsing heart inside, and a singe of fading embers stirring an ashen soul. In her debut book, Sara Hartel gives you her story; or at least, the first few years of it, in poems of love and heartbreak, pain and recovery, grief and acceptance. Some poems are about her experience in the world as a woman, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. But most of all, they are poems of strength and love.