Adrienne Gruber’s third poetry book is entitled Q&A: Q stands for Quintana, her daughter, who is the inspiration for this book and the A stand for Adrienne herself. Immediately, you can sense fear, struggle, and you are placed in the heart of the poetic narrator.
The reader takes a front row seat to the conversation between mother and daughter, experiencing the process of making a baby in “Not Trying,” – ‘We moulded casts of our genitals to show our children, moistened riverbanks until the red earth grew shadows and it poured.’ The poems are arresting and attest to Gruber’s ability to evoke the emotions right out of the reader (she does it so well).
Some poems are scientific, almost read like they are out of a text book and others are packed with emotions, becoming so intimate, so personal. Gruber poignantly hints at life’s subtle questions and provides the answers so seamlessly throughout her narrative.
After I finished reading Adrienne Gruber’s poetry book Q&A, I truly have all the feels. These poems are moving, beautifully written, and fascinating, elaborating on the fears, the excitement, the trauma of pregnancy, and anything in between from the labor, and the everlasting relationship between Gruber and her daughter, Quintana.
Using various poetic forms such as prose and haiku, Gruber’s words are both lyrical and technical. This book is for every reader, confronting their curiosities by giving them an emphatic experience into the journey of motherhood.
By the time you flip the last page, I guarantee you are not going to stop thinking the endless possibilities of emotions that come along with being a mother and the before and after birth of a beautiful child.
Purchase your copy of Q&A from Book*Hug Press.