Lin Marshall Brummels mines family-of-origin stories in "Cottonwood Strong, Bent but Not Broken," to separate her understanding of past events from the sanitized version presented by her family. Her poems chronical growing up with cousins, fending off a brother, and believing she understands evil. However, she still falls for men who hurt her. Birth of her children, their adventures and transitions to adulthood, finally usher in some wisdom. From the vantage point of age, she seeks peace, while at the same time half-fearing she needs to blow up the process and start over.