Critical Acclaim

I Dream You Home: Poems of Grief and Gratitude, is a memoir in verse of Wanda Brown’s 46-year relationship with her wife, Phyllis Goldin, who died in 2020.  In the first section of this artfully crafted collection, Gratitude, Wanda details shared memories of togetherness, travels and adventures, always accentuating their abiding love.  The second section, Grief, articulates the loss of the brilliant, multi-talented Phyllis—a psychiatrist, composer/pianist, and poet herself.  This memorable collection will resonate with all who shared both beauty and sorrow of long-term, loving relationships.

There are poems of great beauty in this book.  With vivid sensual fidelity, Wanda Brown tells the story of the loss of her beloved wife Phyllis Goldin, bringing to radiant life each moment’s station along the way.  It is a way traveled with intense consciousness of the world in which strong hearts strive to make a life together.  In its journey of love, loss, and resilience, I Dream You Home takes the reader all the way.

Nothing could prepare Wanda Brown for the loss of her wife, Phyllis. But years of writing poetry honed her ability to express her grief in ways that are searingly immediate. We stand with her in the grocery store, buying one apple, one banana, one pear. In poems about their almost-immediate connection and passion, their steadfast commitment to one another over decades, their mutual agreement that Home means you, we ache with Wanda as she grieves and begins, “in the low drone of sadness,” to make a life that, step by step, accompanied now by her dog Sparky, sometimes brings her to moments of “clear happiness.”