Tami Haaland

If I Had Said Beauty, Tami Haaland's fourth collection of poetry, is dedicated to "known and unknown" ancestors. It explores the possible narratives and distant origins of what lies behind a sense of self--including recent and ancient DNA, recessive and dominant traits, mitochondrial underpinnings, and an intricate microbiome. Luminous and spare, the poems seek to unravel and speculate, document and lament what happens in a life and what might have been. While probing for definition in the mysteries of deep time, the poems are nevertheless grounded in encounters with wild and domestic life, intimate moments of loss and family connection, all of which intertwine to expand the meaning of "autobiography."

Breath in Every Room intertwines parents and children with encounters in the natural world. Ranging from birds in the forest to a boy’s captured frogs, from rattlesnakes in the prairie to a bat fallen from the sky. The book weaves in and out of myth and dream.

Breath in Every Room intertwines parents and children with encounters in the natural world. Ranging from birds in the forest to a boy’s captured frogs, from rattlesnakes in the prairie to a bat fallen from the sky. The book weaves in and out of myth and dream.

What Does Not Return examines dementia and caregiving against the expansive backdrop of the rural inland West. Through a process of loss and letting go, the poems turn away from "what cannot be undone" in favor of what the present moment reveals through dreams, art, and encounters with animals.