Love Me Louder

By Tyler Hurula

"Tyler Hurula's chapbook, "Love Me Louder", cuts a path through a thicket of pain and leaves poetic breadcrumbs for others to find their way home, which is to say, back to themselves. The very existence of this chapbook breaks one family's cycle of violence. In these pages there is an essence of being fed-up, though the grief and rage is rendere

• Language: English
• Publisher: Querencia Press, LLC
• Release date: Jul 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798330256013

Tyler Hurula

Tyler Hurula (she/her) is a poet born and raised in Denver, Colorado. She is queer, polyamorous, and a pet parent to two cats. Her poems have been published previously in Anti-Heroin Chic and Aurum Journal, Rat's Ass Review, and Gnashing Teeth Publishing. Her poems feature love, polyamory, family, growing up, and being queer. She values are connection, authenticity, and vulnerability, and tries to encompass these values in her writing as well as everyday life.

Book preview

Love Me Louder

Tyler Hurula

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Querencia Press, LLC

Chicago Illinois

QUERENCIA PRESS

© Copyright 2022

Tyler Hurula

All Rights Reserved

No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with the written permission of the author.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

ISBN 979 8 9860788 3 0

.

www.querenciapress.com

First Published in 2022

Querencia Press, LLC

Chicago IL

Printed & Bound in the United States of America

Love Me Louder:

A Family Portrait

CONTENTS

Bruises

Secrets

Biting Back

God as Accomplice

So Mad He Can’t See Straight

Kickball Red

Hide-and-Seek

Shattered

Basement

Why I Hate Holidays: A Glimpse into Christmases Past

Forgiveness has Eight Wobbly Legs

Inheritance Disguised as Decision

My Mother’s Leftovers

Heirloom

Self-Preservation

My Mother, the Artist

Lady of Leisure

Feral

Advice From My Grandmother, From Her Perspective

The Day I Found God in a Purple Rug

Holy Me

Notes on Previous Publications

Bruises

I carry my mother’s grief, 

pickpocketed it as a child.

It kept growing and growing

and now it growls 

from beneath my bones.

It began before I could bite– 

when I could kick

her bruises from the inside out.

Secrets

If houses hold families,

and families have secrets,

my house was buzzing,

There is always chocolate

in the back right corner

of Mom’s side