To Hold Your Moss-Covered Heart by Schuyler Peck
To Hold Your Moss-Covered Heart is a collection of poems based in transformation, detailing stories of moving across the country, the nonlinear process of recovery, relationships, loss, and escaping harmful ideologies. Intertwining throughout is the enduring connection to nature that serves as a remaining, healing force, encompassing our human storylines. It invites you to soften into its simplicities, if you let it.
"To Hold Your Moss-Covered Heart is a book of tenderness. Every moment in this luminous volume is a small spark of magic, a love letter to the world that could be, and a note of forgiveness to the world that once was. Schuyler Peck speaks of home not only in places but in people, writing in awe of summer mornings, tangled gardens, and all her former selves who once longed to leave this life but decided it would be better to stay. 'I have not yet gained the sea legs of my sadness,' Peck admits, but without a doubt, this collection will help many readers gain theirs. A stunning ode to nature, perseverance, and chosen family, To Hold Your Moss-Covered Heart vibrates with peace in every page. In her concluding poem 'At the End,' Peck writes, 'Even if we are scattered out into stars, just let me be a light that knows your name.' And with these gorgeous poems, we are certainly blessed to know hers." — Meggie Royer, author of Survival Songs and founder of Persephone’s Daughters
“Reading this book gives you the same feeling as sitting under a willow tree on one of those days where it’s sunny but also chilly enough to need a sweater. It feels like watching a river and having nothing to do but watch the river; soft and serene and entirely unhurried. Schuyler Peck is tenderness incarnate, and so is her poetry. She writes about love and her struggles with mental health—all with grace and patience. To Hold Your Moss-Covered Heart is a safe patch of grass where you can rest your head. It’s a promise of good things to come.” — Caitlyn Siehl, author of Crybaby and What We Buried
“Reading Schuyler Peck’s work always feels a bit like stepping into a stranger’s house—but she sits you down, pours you tea, and pulls out her old photo albums. To Hold Your Moss-Covered Heart is an intensely personal collection. It doesn’t beg you to relate to it. It just begs you to listen. And I hope you do.” — Trista Mateer, author of Honeybee and The Dogs I Have Kissed
Schuyler Peck is a poet and anxious free-spirit residing with her husband and dog in Portland, Oregon. She was raised in New Jersey and has an uncanny love for 1940’s music, gardening, Buddhist literature, and cheese danishes. She is the author of A Field of Blooming Bruises, among other collections. Her work has been featured in JuxtaProse Magazine, Literary Sexts: Volume 2, Persephone’s Daughters Magazine, Crooked Arrow Press, and Rising Phoenix Review. Schuyler holds a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and her work explores inter-connectedness, healing, mental health, spirituality, the struggles of self-love, our relationship to nature, and past and present love. You can keep up with her on Instagram @hiitssky.
Poetry by Schuyler Peck. Editing and cover illustration by Terra Oliveira. 54 pages. Black & White. Published by Recenter Press in October 2019.
Press:
Queen Mob's Tea House (Review)