Beth Oast Williams's debut chapbook, Riding Horses in the Harbor, explores the intersection of the human experience with our natural landscape. Raised on the Elizabeth River, Williams paints the waterways of Southeastern Virginia as a rich backdrop for both memory poems and for ones that look to the future. Here, floods and storms pair with parental loss and the realization that human beings have such little control over nature's force.
The opening poem, "Elizabeth River Rising", invokes many of the chapbook's themes: the flooding river, the yearning for a lost mother, the author's search for spiritual answers in nature.
We celebrate the exhilaration of sailing in "Mother Still Breathes in the Wind", where the speaker can "ride the back of wild/horses in the harbor", a reference to white caps kicked up by the wind. This joy is offset by and the sullen kayak journey in "How Shallow the Creek". Many poems pay tribute to her mother and father, including "Mother's Death is Hard to Swallow" and "Nor'easter's Path".
"These Stars, Now Your Mother's Eyes" alludes to religious history and speaks to the sudden loss of a loved one, with the hope that they may be present with us, if only as stars.
This collection includes "Drink In The Morning', which was the author's first published poem. It appeared in Lou Lit. Other poems in this collection were published in Crab Creek Review, Lou Lit, Red Earth Review, Soft Cartel, The Sunlight Press, and Willard and Maple.
