The collection Between Twilight (from NYQ Books) by Connie Post is a 2023 American Book Festival “Best Book Awards Finalist” that delves into themes of sexual abuse, brokenness, religion, body autonomy, and the interconnectedness of nature and the human experience. With the use of vivid imagery and thought-provoking language, Post skillfully explores these themes and asks the reader to contemplate their significance within the world that exists between twilight.

The title of the collection holds significant meaning throughout the poems. What happens in these poems, in this space between twilight? It represents a liminal space between sleep and consciousness, as a holy space where “the surfaces [are] / absolving one another” (“Fusion”), and where the speaker finds solace and healing. Between twilight is its own space and time, otherworldly and familiar simultaneously. Post's poetry beautifully captures the concept of this in-between space, where the mundane and the extraordinary intersect.

The poems navigate pastoral and surrealist spaces, allowing the speaker to confront and come to terms with their past traumas. “You hear others / calling from the banks / but you lose consciousness// and when you wake / you find yourself / standing at the edge / of the estuary of night … praying quietly / to a lone pelican” (“Torrent”). The natural bird and bodies of water imagery serve as metaphors for the speaker’s exploration of trauma and grief, as well as moments of strength and forgiveness.

The addressing of both visible and invisible "you" – sometimes as the speaker – blurs the linear timeline of the poems, further emphasizing the complex emotional terrains explored. In other poems, such as the title poem, the use of first-person narration creates a deeper sense of intimacy and personal struggle. Within the experience of destruction described, the speaker yearns to “go back / to how it was” when “the nebulae and galaxies / accepted me / just as I was / broken / celestial… to reconfigure themselves / as me” (“Between Twilight”). Through tender observations and striking imagery, Between Twilight is a poetic journey which transcends the boundaries of time and space. The collection offers a glimpse into the transformative power of embracing brokenness in spaces of potential.