Waves Closing Over Us, by Janelle Cordero

Poetry, chapbook, 36 pages, illustrated, from Bottlecap Press.

Waves Closing Over Us is a chapbook of seeker poems by a twenty-something who’s trying to understand death alongside life. True moments are held up for measure: a wife fastening the buttons of her husband’s shirt, the neighbor’s car getting towed, 90’s pop songs playing in a grocery store on a rainy evening. Everything in this chapbook is wavering between happiness with the present moment and questioning what’s to come after all this is finished. And no answers are given for these questions, which is the best part.

Janelle Cordero is an interdisciplinary artist and educator living in Spokane, WA. Her writing has been published in dozens of literary journals, including Harpur Palate, Hobart and The Louisville Review, while her paintings have been featured in venues and shows throughout the Pacific Northwest. Janelle is the author of three books of poetry: Many Types of Wildflowers (V.A. Press, 2020), Woke to Birds (V.A. Press, 2019) and Two Cups of Tomatoes (P.W.P. Press, 2015).