In this stirring collection, Alison Palmer invites the reader to join her at the edges of love’s reach, examining the complexities of healing and grief through an observatory lens. Palmer considers how we both break and rebuild in the face of heartache without disappearing, “The air’s only air once / we realize disquiet in our lungs, / then take up our vanishing.” Through breathtaking imagery that juxtaposes human fragility with nature’s ability to endure, we are left to contemplate what it means to survive love and loss. Her succinct use of white space and control of the page creates a type of quiet intensity that leaves room to witness the raw nature of love’s tension and vulnerability when faced with the remaining wreckage of eroding relationships. Palmer brings us back to the visceral and challenges us to see our healing as not only imperative, but as enduring as nature’s pulse: “I palm each trunk; it’s safer to suffer— / each limb creaks against the wind / to know it’s here.” She navigates waves of emotional distance through unique descriptions of the delicate spaces that make up separation and renewal. Highlighted by captivating, elusive language, tender forgiveness, and powerful introspection, this narrative reinvents what it means to keep surviving in a deeply personal, yet universally resonant way. In the chasm of despair and hope, we find solace in The Offing.

About Alison Palmer