Driving to Heaven

Tracy Youngblom

The poems of Tracy Youngblom juxtapose the experiences of “earthly existence” with that of the possibility of eternity. She “maneuvers [her child] through the crazy / rush hour of his curiosity, but [she] can’t / convert him, this child who loves the idea / of suspension, is propelled by the concept of a God.” Her poems capture the struggle to reconcile both the tragic and euphoric journeys in life, all the while holding a belief in some form of an after-life.

Tracy Youngblom holds an MA in English and an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College. Her poems have appeared in many journals over the years, including Shenandoah, Loonfeather, Briar Cliff Review, North Stone Review, Poetry East, Potomac Review, Cortland Review, and others, along with the anthologies 33 Minnesota Poets and In A Fine Frenzy. She is the poetry editor for the online journal Emprise Review and teaches English at a local community college. Driving to Heaven is her first collection.

Driving to Heaven was reviewed in the Midwest Book Review‘s January 2011 Library Bookwatch.

An article about Tracy and Driving to Heaven recently appeared in ABC Newspapers.

A review of Driving to Heaven appeared in the online issue of Verse Wisconsin in fall 2011: “Tracy Youngblom is herself writing good stories in poetry.”

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Excerpt

Why Does This Child

thump down the stairs
still wrapped in sleep, feel
his way to me without eyes,
and hang close as a shawl

when last night – for many days –
he has dared me to love him,
spitting brittle words? Why am I
mother he wants to hurt?

Now he comes voiceless
to my side and refuses
to touch me
but allows the shadow

of my hand
to graze his hair.