Souvenirs From the Numinous Hinterland

Souvenirs From the Numinous Hinterland is a tender, darkly funny poetry collection about the strange country between survival and belonging.Moving through childhood, family, queer love, mental illness, homelessness, faith, trans identity, and the daily work of staying alive, RickyJude Barker transforms memory into something the reader can hold: a baby tooth, three heart-shaped stones, a red balloon, a set of keys, a hand reaching through deep water.These poems are direct without being simple and vulnerable without surrendering their wit. They trace the distortions of fear, the ache of lost love, the joy of becoming recognizable to oneself, and the quiet grace of being given a home-by another person, by a community, and eventually within one's own life.Haunted, irreverent, and deeply human, Souvenirs From the Numinous Hinterland offers small proofs that beauty can survive the journey back-and that none of us must travel the hinterland entirely alone.