Donna Marie Merritt

Her House and Other Poems by Donna Marie Merritt is her fourth book of poetry. Merritt lives in Connecticut and is also the author of fifteen award winning children's books.

Merritt has a knack for connecting her experiences in such a way that you can relate to them on the same level. I see her turtle in “Rescued by a turtle” sliding off his perch into the water in the pond on my ride to work. She captures the little things and simple things we all see and put away in the back of our minds until her words brings them back. The read will say, “Yes, exactly, I know that place.” or “I know that exact feeling.” and makes the reader wonder if he or she was there experiencing the event.

There are also the less pleasant things, like people knocking on your door soliciting their version of God or those annoying TV contestants who all have a perfectly happy well adjusted families and not “My spouse is lying, lazy loud jerk...” Or the times we need to pretend that everything is okay.

There are plenty of good times recorded in Her House. From a nice glass of wine, to making do in a power outage, and personal memories. Merritt has very unique ability to capture the ordinary and replay it back as extraordinary. Her previous two books that I have read, Job Loss and What's Wrong with Ordinary are excellent, and here her newest is just as well done but with a wider variety poems, not limited by a theme.

Her House is a perfect book for a day at the park (even in the Texas summer heat) or a lazy Sunday afternoon. Merritt has become one of my favorite contemporary poets. Her observations and ability to retell her experiences are amazing. I am very much looking forward to her next collection.
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Re-read for National Poetry Month 2015… (meer)

Independent poets are a rare breed these days. Great independent poets are even more rare. Donna Marie Merritt provides a delightful mixture of Texas and New England culture in her writing. Straight to the point and with simple words that carry much more meaning than their surface denotation.

We Walk Together is Merritt's fifth collection of poetry. I have read and reviewed three of her previous for collection and found them to be wonderful. It is poetry that examines the simpler and sometimes more difficult things in life in a way that embraces the reader. After all, not everything in life is wonderful like turtles in a summer pond. There are hardships, too, that are related in such a way the reader immediately identifies with the author. There is a connection that cannot be ignored.

In the way of connection, the second poem in this collection is called "JD," a play on a child's initials and juvenile delinquent, but dangerously close to my own initials, JG, and my attitude and behavior in school. Merritt's descriptions and words have me thinking we sat in the same classroom. From what most observe and what is real is sometimes very different.

In this collection, many of the poems touch on the interconnectedness of all mankind. We read of how homelessness is seen and experienced and shown a comparison between small events that change the outcome of a later event, even when dealing with those whom society has written off. There are moments where problems can be solved with the right bit of understanding preventing something that is a simple mistake from growing into an ordeal.

There is also that moment of impossible grief. When we experience something too terrible to bear. We all had that moment, maybe different from "It's not her", but it’s that feeling of absolute consternation that haunts the reader's soul that makes it real.

This collection is the shortest I read, but perhaps the hardest hitting and most outward-looking. It has the reader looking at his or her own life, events, and feelings and examine how that may have influenced an event. Perhaps making the reader scrutinize his or her previous actions and thoughts and possibly see the difference a kinder act or more informed thinking might have accomplished. We think of ourselves as individuals, but as Merritt teaches us, we all walk together.
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“A man wants to earn money in order to be happy, and his whole effort and the best of a life are devoted to the earning of that money. Happiness is forgotten; the means are taken for the end.”
―Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays

Job Loss: A Journey in Poetry by Donna Marie Merritt is part of the trilogy Poetry for Tough Times. Merritt is also the author of several children's books, fifteen of which have won awards for math and science content. She has earned a Bachelor's Degree in Education from Central Connecticut University and a Masters of Science Degree in Psychology from the same university. She can be found at http://www.donnamariebooks.com/

Job Loss, much like What's Wrong with Ordinary takes on real life events and problems and creates meaningful poetry. From the opening poem “Box”, packing your personal belongings under the watchful eye of supervisors before being escorted to the door; to the box that has become home to many people at work –the cubicle, the reader is taken through the pain and the uncertainty of losing one's job and the process of finding another. Rejection letters, no replies, and finally that job, that isn't what you want, not what you need, but seemingly the only thing out there. Finally the realization that it is time for a change.

Merritt does an outstanding job capturing the feelings and despair of losing one's job. Reading Job Loss took me back to when I lost my high paying job in project management and had much the same worries and fears. How could I be out of work with my experience and education. Only 8% of the population have a master's degree... I should be at the top of the hiring list. I realized that it was time for a change, too. I became a bicycle mechanic. Not, the greatest paying job, but it gave me something I didn't have before: Time to stay healthy, time to read (and write reviews), and time to enjoy life. Perhaps happiness is not making money but reading and writing poetry.

I was instantly taken in with What's Wrong with Ordinary last year and equally taken in by Job Loss this year. Merritt has a knack for capturing life events with beautiful and meaningful words. Unlike so many poetry collections of modern life, Merritt does not fall into cliches or forced rhymes or trying to make make something into poetry against its will, so to speak. Her writing is different. Rather than describing life in poetry, she is a poet describing life and it shows in her work. I get more than my share of free books to review and rarely need to order a books, but I have ordered her latest book, Her House and look forward to reading it.… (meer)