We don’t have to wait-Any lit wick // that brightens without / burn, suffices. Ayers is hoping that today is the day you realize it, so you can look back the next day and remember that you, said I love you to our fragile Earth, /said I love you, I love you to the universe. “Poetry” is the answer to every question Ayers ever asked, and she implores you to save yourself / in the quiet hours / one kind word at a time.

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The poems in The Autobiography of Rain explore the healing power of nature in a world that is as rife with grief as it is ripe with beauty. “Ayers catches ephemeral moments in lines and in deft strokes as the poems in The Autobiography of Rain affixes these instants onto monuments. The fickle and atmospheric weather of losses, revelations, and heartbreak shift and shimmer. Meanwhile, the residue of a night of rain on pavement reflects what is brightest about the sun. These gorgeous poems reside in the heartbeat-sound of showers on a roof as well as the dazzle of the world after the rain. They bedazzle and go from gray to glow.”

—Oliver de la Paz, author of The Diaspora Sonnets

“These engaging poems underscore the restorative power of art and nature, urging readers to cherish life’s simple pleasures. With memorable lines such as Rumor has it the night sky / is composed of crows, Ayers’ voice captivates and draws you in. The Autobiography of Rain is a gift to readers—each poem in this collection showcases Ayers’ remarkable talent for capturing the essence of a moment through vivid imagery and lyrical language. This is a captivating and poignant collection of poems and a must-read for anyone seeking to explore the richness and complexity of the human experience. I could not put this gorgeous collection down.”

—Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Dialogues with Rising Tides

In Lana Hechtman Ayers new collection, The Autobiography of Rain, we are invited not to run for cover from the rain of life but instead to remove our jackets and get wet. In these generous, lyric-narrative, poems we find the autobiography of life, the poet’s and our own, we find the story of love and grief, of the body and of nature. How lucky to have a poet like Ayers calling out to us in the storm.

—Matthew Dickman, author of Husbandry

Compelling, elegant, and remarkably honest, The Autobiography of Rain is filled with stark, realistic poems that paint an intimate portrait of love, loss, family, identity, and the ever-present need for empathy. In these vibrant poems of nature and biography, Ayers showcases a true talent for imbuing the smallest human details with authenticity and layered meanings. Each poem maps out the human heart, in all its internal conflicts, with precision and grace. Overflowing with vivid and accessible language, The Autobiography of Rain is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging, reminding us that the sky above / never leaves us, / never abandons us.

—John Sibley Williams, author of The Drowning House

The best words to describe me are heartbroken, lobelia, starlit, writes Lana Hechtman Ayers, and indeed, her poems surge with aching memories, odes to nature, and the tenuous balance between hope and despair over the troubled state of the world. Despite the Gordian knot of grief, as Ayers puts it—the alphabet of pain—this can be a good life, / even when it’s frozen / and overcast, / even when the forecast is more of the same. Weaving from recollections of golden light all over / the synagogue to time spent working for a crisis hotline, Ayers shows that poetry can make a difference in the quiet hours / one kind word at a time.

—Catherine Kyle, author of Fulgurite

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