What We Keep

In this moving memoir in poetry, Nancy Noelke honors each stage of life with a lyric, tender, and independent spirit. In poems that chart a 1960s childhood, marriage, motherhood, and divorce, then map the terrain of caretaking aging parents, grieving, and the acceptance and creativity found in aging, Noelke voices a fierce vitality born from loving herself and her world exactly as they are.

—Rebecca Jamieson, author of The Body of All Things

From wind-dancing with clothesline sheets to a zipline in Costa Rica, Nancy Noelke takes us on a nostalgic journey, capturing the exhilaration and nuance of a life well-lived. In What We Keep, Nancy’s poems inspire us to slow down, reflect, and reacognize not just the geography of our lives, but also, the beauty in an apricot sunrise.

—Sue Ann Gleason, poet, educator, and author of the newly released Pencil Man

In this intimate poetry collection, Nancy Noelke has described a life – from growing up, to moving on. From early years at school, leaving home, breaking away, marriage, motherhood, and necessary goodbyes to loved ones. There are poignant lessons aplenty here for all of us about – as her title suggests -- what we keep.

—Ronnie Hess, author of seven poetry collections and two award-winning culinary travel guides