This collection was written in tandem by Kim Birdsong and her daughter, Stephanie Schilling, in a process of reflection and discovery.

Each poem began with a shared title, theme, or memory—an invitation more than an instruction. From there, each woman wrote separately, without reading or discussing the other’s work until both pieces were complete. Only then did they trade words, meeting one another anew through what was created.

What emerged was an intimate conversation across generations—a dialogue between silence and speaking, pain and reclamation. These poems explore the inherited patterns of trauma, the ways we learn to protect ourselves, and the courage it takes to unlearn what once kept us safe through a lens of compassion. In their pairing, mother and daughter trace the echoes that pass through bloodlines, and the moments of healing that become possible when those echoes are finally named.

This poetry collection is both tender and fierce.

This is a topic that is difficult and challenging and is also rarely discussed, yet it is more prevalent than most people realize. We need to speak more about it, more often and more openly. Shame thrives in silence, and it is the hope of these authors that his volume of poems begins to dissolve a portion of it.

We have navigated this complex path together, and now we invite you to join us—to bear witness to our truth and our healing, through the voices of this mother and daughter finding their way.