Songs from Fern’s Pond: Composing a Life with Courage, Gratitude, and Joy

Reminiscent of Mary Oliver’s A Thousand Mornings and Amanda Thomson’s Belonging, this evocative blend of poetry, prose, and personal letters unfurls a story of an untamed, beautiful place-and one woman’s choice to spend the last chapter of her life making it her home. At age sixty-two, Fern started a new life. Recently widowed, she found a piece of neglected acreage above the Snake River on which to build a home, forge a community-and find renewed purpose. On the land around Fern’s Pond, she nurtured a vineyard, an abundant garden, and a small farm of one cow, a goat, and chickens. She befriended wild ducks and harvested trout in her waters, and she used the materials that grew around the pond and springs to weave baskets-unique works of art that captured the elegance of the natural world. Songs from Fern’s Pond is a collage of poetry, letters, and prose that captures the universal resilience of the human spirit through the humor and courage of a woman who fearlessly pursued the life she dreamed of. A duet of text between mother and daughter, it’s a transcendent vision of the rough, wild, and beautiful landscape of the heart-and a reminder that every chapter is worth living to its fullest.