By Mike Broemmel
Perhaps something of a literary comeuppance of the kind exemplified by Taylor Swift in the musical world some 10 years ago, Tayler Smith encountered her ex after completing work on her poetry collection. As a refresher, earlier in her career, singer Swift is said to have written at least a few songs in response to breakups with her significant others.
Back when Coming Home to Me was on course to be released, Tayler had a brief face-to-face with her ex and pronounced:
“I wrote a book about you and it’s going to be published.”
In explaining this exchange, Tayler’s voice does not echo with vengeance. In fact, the words and tone bespeak self-love, healing, and moving on to different and even better days. These points are exemplified throughout her latest published collection.
The breakup with her partner occurred without warning to Tayler. In fact, Tayler and her significant other had made new living arrangements with a goal of furthering their relationship. Two days before the residential change was to occur, Tayler’s partner summarily announced that she was ending the relationship.
While it is a fair statement to make note that Tayler’s breakup with her partner spurred her desire to create this collection of poetry, her book is not a maudlin exercise as can be the case with many tomes that have a genesis in a writer’s grim experience. While there are poems in Tayler’s collection that address the sadness and challenges of a relationship’s ending, Coming Home to Me is – more than anything else – a testament to survival, the resilience of the human spirit, and acceptance while moving on to meaningful new experiences. The book is a triumphant collection.
Tayler Smith
On a personal note, Tayler made mention that writing and collecting these particular poems was a “100 percent cathartic” endeavor. “Writing these poems was a form of therapy for me,” she explained. “Rather than stifling emotions, the process (of creating the collection) provided me with a positive way to deal with them”
Tayler generally kept her own counsel when writing Coming Home to Me. Historically, when working on a writing project, Tayler would turn to trusted friends or colleagues to consider her works in progress. In this case, Tayler determined it was wiser for her to work through the entire collection, from writing to sequencing the individual pieces, before showing her collection to another person.
In 2012, while a student at the University of Northern Colorado, Tayler switched her major to creative writing and English. She graduated in 2016 and continued on a pathway to become a published author and poet. Prior to the release of Coming Home to Me, poems by Tayler were published individually.
When asked where she might find herself a decade from now, Tayler quickly made two quick points: She will likely be immersed in an artistic career and she hopes she’ll be with her current partner. Having made those responses in short speed, she made note that her father passed away not that long ago.
Tayler noted that in the end, none of us are guaranteed a future. A person is “not even guaranteed to finish their dinner,” Tayler remarked.
At the time of the interview for this article, Tayler already was deep into work on her next collection of poetry. The book will be something of a sequel to Coming Home to Me. Not providing any spoilers, Tayler nonetheless shared that her new collection naturally flows from what she wrote and included in Coming Home to Me. She explained that the upcoming work fairly could be called “more loving, joyful, and charming.” Also something of a relationship-based work, the new poems are written during a time described by Tayler as being at a point in her life in which she is “in a relationship I’ve been wanting, been craving.”
She’s not yet landed on a title for the new collection. She plans on including 20 poems in the new collection, the same count as in Coming Home to Me, with a publication date during the coming summer months.
Returning to Coming Home to Me, a sense of Tayler’s sharp writing style and themes of her work can be found from the very first poem in the collection, I Will Continue to Love the Way I Love.
Coming Home to Me -By Tayler Smith
I Will Continue to Love the Way I Love
I thought knowing how you take your coffee, a little extra sweet, was love
I thought taking out the trash because you hate doing it was love
I thought offering to chop shallots so you didn’t have to cry in the kitchen was love
I thought helping you prepare lunch for work tomorrow because you were too tired to was love
I thought making the bed every morning was love
I thought surprising you with little gifts I knew you’d enjoy no matter the day or place was love
I thought caressing your face between my thumbs and massaging your clenched jaw was love
I thought rubbing your back until you fell asleep because you had a rough day was love
I thought telling you how beautiful you are was love
I thought covering you up with blankets in the middle of the night was love
I thought trusting you at a skating rink, even though I had never skated before, was love
I thought meeting all of your friends and family was love
I thought staying up ungodly late losing so much sleep was love
I thought being patient was love
I thought filling up your water, especially the one on your nightstand, before bed was love
I thought allowing each other room to vent and listen was love
I thought every glance, every touch, every smile, every knock on the door was love
Then a few months later… you asked me, “what even is love?”
As if you had never experienced it.
Coming Home to Me can be found at a number of outlets, including in the brick and mortar world at Edgewater Public Market, 5505 W. 20th Ave, Edgewater, Colorado 80214 and through Amazon at https://a.co/d/abdV2Ts.
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About the author
Writing and journalism has been at the heart of Mike’s life after graduating from college with a degree in political science and journalism and beginning his career in the White House Office of Media Relations and Planning (and then in the Office of the First Lady). A primary focus of his work has been in the realm of political analysis and commentary. Mike is also a playwright with several productions addressing issues of equality, diversity, and inclusion that have been produced internationally.