In the 108 poems in this collection, archetypes and memory entwine. Personified elements of Earth, Water, Fire, and Air weave with lived experience and first person poems to chart the sacred terrain of motherhood, mental illness, and joy. The verses move like seasons through the ache of miscarriage, the fierce bloom of pregnancy, the primal truth of birth, and the weight of postpartum depression. They hold the sweetness of a child’s laugh, the pulse of landscape, and the expansive spiral of spirit. Rooted in the sacred rhythms of the earth, these poems embrace struggle, sorrow, and joy as vital threads in the fabric of wholeness.
Melinda’s evocative landscape photography accompanies the poems.
For anyone who has known deep loss, this joyful, honest spiritual memoir in verse is the story of getting back what matters and makes life worth living. Thank you, Melinda, for this timely, daring, and brave gift!
What people are saying
Melinda Thomas’ collection takes you on a compelling journey through the heart of ache and loss, weaving death and birth together. Her beautiful poems immerse you in the turning of the seasons, the grace of the elements, and the power of the senses in a way that helps you remember how much grace nature can offer in times of sorrow.
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, online abbess of Abbey of the Arts and author of The Wisdom of Wild Grace: Poems and Love Holds You: Poems and Devotions for Times of Uncertainty
Astonishingly beautiful, wise poetry, Elements of Being by Melinda Emily Thomas is so powerful that once I began reading it, I couldn’t put it down. It invites all of us to befriend the always loving mystery of Creation’s sacred embodiment and to honor our voices and our place in this unfolding interdependence, even or especially on days that are bewildering and hard. It’s imaginative and down-to-earth, and chock full of jewels that help us return to ourselves, and to be gloriously human, together. “Unchain yourself from the surface and open to the Deep,” Thomas sings, and “Remember this, you are not alone.” For anyone who has known deep loss, this joyful, honest spiritual memoir in verse is the story of getting back what matters and makes life worth living: “The fire. The passion. The purpose. The delight. / The butterfly twirling on a tightrope.” Thank you, Melinda, for this timely, daring, and brave gift!
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—Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, poet, Center for Action and Contemplation core faculty, and award-winning translator of The Cloud of Unknowing, Practice of the Presence by Brother Lawrence, and Hildegard of Bingen
Melinda Emily Thomas 