Partial Views: A Collection of Poetry

By Tina Lear

In this debut collection of poems, Tina Lear sends some tenderness to the little girl hiding in plain sight, the woman sleeping around long after it isn’t fun anymore, the mother screaming at her kids, the wife trying to jump out the window of a marriage on fire, and the daughter watching Jeopardy with her ancient, bedridden mother.
Lear’s work stings with resonance and pulls laughter from the darkness. She tells the whole truth with a fractal memory. Divided into six sections, her poems range from a swim in the river of youth, to the hard road of marriage and motherhood, all the way to waning days of very old age, and the nectar that comes from all of it—ending with a whimsical look at possible worlds.
Partial Views is a love letter to all the ways in which we try and fail and try again to meet our reflection in the mirror and whisper yes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Dec 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665730341

Tina Lear

Tina Lear has been writing ever since she could hold a pencil. She is the author of four musicals, countless poems, and articles published in Tricycle Magazine. She has taught yoga at Rikers Island, driven cattle in Wyoming, and performed her songs nationwide. This is her first published collection of poems.

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Copyright © 2022 Tina Lear.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

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except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher

make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book

and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Publishing Acknowledgements:

For My Daughter was published by Germ Magazine, April, 2014.

Nobody Knows was published in the July, 2017 issue of The NW.

The Velveteen Mother was published in Anti-Heroin Chic, June, 2021.

Fire in a Tipi was published in Second Chance Lit, fall edition, 2021.

If My Throat Had All My Listening was published in Pinyon Publishing, fall edition, 2021.

Again was published by Brilliant Writer Press, 2021

Is This Thing Loaded?, Junk Mail, and New(s) Headlines published in The Write Launch, January, 2022

Dying Plants was published in Gyroscope Review, fall edition, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-6657-3032-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-3034-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022917329

Archway Publishing rev. date: 02/21/2023

This book is

for Jesse, Luke and Chloe.

Your courage, creativity and love

sustain and astound me every day.

It is also for my beloved wife, Elena,

whose wolf spirit lopes alongside me

everywhere, alert and protective

and whose hummingbird heart

shows me where the nectar is,

and how to drink it.

CONTENTS

PART 1: SWAGGER AND RISK

Inner Tubing

Just Kidding

Net Worth

The Afternoon Snack

Moonlight Bay

Rent Control

PART 2: THE VELVETEEN MOTHER

I’m Trying to Find Her

Needlepoint

Prayer for my Father

Valentine’s Day Massacre

Crisis Colors

For My Daughter

The Velveteen Mother

PART 3: IS THIS THING LOADED?

Fire in a Tipi

Dying Plants

Nobody Knows

The Agreement

In This Midnight Bedroom

Is This Thing Loaded?

PART 4: MASTER CLASS

I Wrote a Poem Today

Homesick

No Horizon Is New

Underground Chic

It Doesn’t Really Matter

When My Throat Has All My Listening

Master Class

PART 5: NIGHT BOATS

Hello Moon

Salts