Flood Patterns: Poetry by Jessica Gigot
ALT: Book cover features "Estuary Farm" painting detail by Kris Ekstrand Molesworth. Text reads: Flood Patterns, Jessica Gigot, poems.
A re-issue of Jessica Gigot's acclaimed poetry debut
The poems [in Flood Patterns] are informed by the determined if contested optimism of someone who knows the ground she walks on and its potential to yield both bounty and treachery. We discover the perishable joys and stubborn sadnesses of farm life, family life, writing life, even as each poem edges through unpredictable weather to unearth a hopeful patience, resilient and alert. Like rocks in a tumbler, these poems release "rhythm and rage / From their time at sea," emerging with the luster of hard-won truth. --Kevin Craft, author of Traverse
In this debut collection, Jessica Gigot, farmer, scientist, and poet, writes about her territory, the Skagit River Valley. Her poetry is plainspoken, restrained, and entirely believable. Bypassing the ecstatic, she reveals a land and its species that are both threatened and provisional. Nevertheless, these poems rejoice in a quiet beauty that exceeds what is merely necessary for existence. As Gigot reminds us, "A fire breathes beneath the cold." --Jeanne Murray Walker, author of New Tracks, Night Falling
The poems [in Flood Patterns] are informed by the determined if contested optimism of someone who knows the ground she walks on and its potential to yield both bounty and treachery. We discover the perishable joys and stubborn sadnesses of farm life, family life, writing life, even as each poem edges through unpredictable weather to unearth a hopeful patience, resilient and alert. Like rocks in a tumbler, these poems release "rhythm and rage / From their time at sea," emerging with the luster of hard-won truth. --Kevin Craft, author of Traverse
In this debut collection, Jessica Gigot, farmer, scientist, and poet, writes about her territory, the Skagit River Valley. Her poetry is plainspoken, restrained, and entirely believable. Bypassing the ecstatic, she reveals a land and its species that are both threatened and provisional. Nevertheless, these poems rejoice in a quiet beauty that exceeds what is merely necessary for existence. As Gigot reminds us, "A fire breathes beneath the cold." --Jeanne Murray Walker, author of New Tracks, Night Falling
ALT: Photo of poet Jessica Gigot on her sheep farm
Jessica Gigot, PhD, MFA, is a poet, farmer, and writing/literacy coach. She lives on a little sheep farm in the Skagit Valley. Her second book of poems, Feeding Hour (Wandering Aengus Press, 2020) was a finalist for the 2021 Washington State Book Award. Jessica’s writing and reviews appear in several publications, such as the New York Times, Seattle Times, Orion, Ecotone, Terrain.org, and Poetry Northwest. Her award-winning memoir, A Little Bit of Land, was published by Oregon State University Press in September 2022.