Praise for “Embodiement”

“What a gem—I adored the description of seeking to name a bird and all the implications of various losses weighing on that too—how they push the poem forward from the unforgettable image of a singular braid and back to birds in flight. This poem chronicles and tries to make sense of loss without flinching, and succeeds.”

– Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Author of World of Wonders, Lace & Pyrite, Oceanic, and others

Praise for I Am One of You

“… this skillfully written collection … is sure to be appreciated by anyone who enjoys contemporary poetry.”

– BlueInk Review

“… In James Baldwin’s 1956 novel Giovanni’s Room, a character muses that “perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.” If Eiden’s poetry is about any one thing,it is that irrevocable condition. It’s about the old home we leavewithout ever quite leaving it, and the new home we build out of some uneven mixture of coincidence and desire. It’s also about marriage – the unlikely effort to forge a home with another human – and about children, and our hopeful wish to strengthen a home for those who come after us … On this tour of all her homes, the poet writes with pride but without arrogance, with wit but without guile, and with grace but without unnecessary ornament. Moving poetry that kindly welcomes readers in to sit down and rest awhile.”

– Kirkus Reviews
Volume LXXXIV, No. 5, I March 2016, full review on page 149

Nicole Eiden's poems explore a common life, offering cadences of the everyday in images of school shoes , a small dog, a cup of coffee, a child, a mother, a father, a husband, a wife, while moving in memory's landscape from Ohio to New Orleans and points in between. But these are not just simple moments, but rather moments lovingly attended to, lovingly attuned to what it means to see the world in both its joys and sorrows and to not be afraid. These are incantations to turn to when the path seems dark. Trust me, they will help.

– Robert Kinsley
Author of Field Stones and Endangered Species

Nicole Eiden’s poems arise from a profound desire to find something crucial – something durable and palpably significant – in the quotidian moments that compose the greater part of our lives. Her poems range from musings on a speck of spinach on the freezer door, to sweeping, lyrical meditations on time and desire.  She can shift tone on a dime while delving into the murky ways in which we not only seek to define ourselves as parent, worker, friend, spouse, citizen, son or daughter – but also to break free of those definitions.  “I want to be a hammer and pound / make noise see where my energy goes.”   These poems are acutely aware that we are all moving on the currents of a river whose source and strength derives from our collective and personal histories, but that we must look ahead, push forward, embrace the future as well.  This is a delightful debut. 

– J. Allyn Rosser
Author of Mimi’s Trapeze, Foiled Again, Misery Prefigured, and Bright Moves

Nicole Eiden writes that she desires, “To really go at the heart of the day again and again.”  A courageous task she has assigned herself, which she undertakes with grace and care. This collection describes the fertile tension in being child, friend, mother, lover, adventurer and creator.  Please follow this brilliant poet as she illuminates the corridors of daily existence to locate the life-giving pulse at the center of her art. 

– Constance Adler
Author of My Bayou, New Orleans Through the Eyes of a Lover

Nicole Eiden writes her way through the world so gently that you are not expecting tiny punches to your gut. Air sucked in by lines that simply appear and make you move your face in ways you had forgotten. “We tried to be loved by other people.”  Her poetry always makes me feel like I can nod my head and announce to the rest of the room or the world that we are all the same. We are moving through things in this life. We are traveling with her.

– Amy Turn Sharp
Author of Hold Me Like Ohio