The Elegy of a Songbird

The Elegy of a Songbird is a raw and intimate poetry collection that traces a life shaped by grief, survival, addiction, love, and reclamation. Moving through memory like a series of open doors, these poems speak in the voices of the wounded, the watchful, and the enduring—of daughters and mothers, ghosts and survivors, lovers and children left behind.

With unflinching clarity, Rhiana Jewell explores trauma and recovery, self-destruction and self-mercy, the long echo of abuse, the quiet labor of healing, and the fierce love that makes survival possible. These poems do not ask to be read gently; they ask to be witnessed. From confessional reckonings to moments of startling tenderness, the collection charts the slow, hard work of choosing life again and again.

This is a book for anyone who has lived through pain and learned to carry it—carefully, defiantly, honestly. An elegy not only for what was lost, but for what remains: a voice, a breath, a song still being sung.