A requiem is a solemn chant, a dirge, a mass for the dead and Heartsick Requiem, the debut full length collection by Morrow Dowdle, is just that. Dowdle writes about a complicated relationship with a difficult mother, the abuse suffered at the hands of a father, a sister's slow dying, a marriage ending. But within and throughout these heartsick songs joy can also be found, large and small: a child's bell of a voice calling mama, a son's love of dinosaurs, a home of one's own, a new piercing, a teenage daughter's snark softened, a meal shared with loved ones. Dowdle shows us joy is sweeter on the other side of sorrow and sometimes, even if it feels impossible, the heart must sing through it all. ***Within the pages of her debut collection, the marvelous poet Morrow Dowdle refers to a family gift she's rediscovered, a slim gold bangle-"I don't know why I wear it / but I do / slipping it / around the bones / fastening like a shackle / the heart-shaped clasp" . . . and while that can't sum up all of what is expressed so eloquently in Dowdle's Heartsick Requiem, it does provide an able, lovely metaphor for the book's main project, which is to separate the myths of what family is supposed to be from what, unfortunately, family is for so many of us, complicated, confusing, and even traumatizing. Experience allows us to look back with clearer vision, and yet that experience can't completely free us from our "shackling" "heart-shaped" attachments. This is a gorgeous complex collection by a poet to watch. Morrow Dowdle is a wonder and so is Heartsick Requiem. Kathleen Driskell, Kentucky Poet Laureate 2025-26, author of Goat-Footed Gods: Poems.Morrow Dowdle's Heartsick Requiem is a collection that glitters with grit and grace. As the title suggests, these poems are fully aware that death is embroidered into our existence. Even as the poems mourn the death of a sister and the end of a relationship, they are also "hungry for nothing / but resurrection." They speak to the necessity of rewriting generational trauma through loving bonds-with the self, one's kin (biological and chosen), and the natural world. These poems know the authentic self is a "ladder where angels can tread" and they're finished with fear. Their hard-won wisdom offers sustenance. Let Dowdle's poetry nourish you. Amie Whittemore, author of Hesitation Waltz
