Nest of Matches

Poems that bask in the beauty of nature, queerness, and love while exploring how dichotomies form identity. Amie Whittemore's Nest of Matches. is a lavish declaration of the beauty of the natural world, queer identity, and of the imagination set free. Whittemore's third collection explores the complexities of love-romantic, familial, and love for place-and wonders at cycles of life, finding that: "Every habit / even love-strangest / of them all-offers exhaustion / and renewal. " Moving seamlessly from meditations on the moon's phases to explorations of dream spaces to searches for meaning through patterns of love and loss, Whittemore's work embodies the mysteries of dichotomies-grief and joy, consciousness and unconsciousness, habit and spontaneity-and how they coexist to create our identities. Throughout the collection, Whittemore reveals how interior nature manifests into exterior habits and how physical landscapes shape the psyche.