Tender One

G. Gazelka opens Tender One with a personal poem about their childhood as a storyteller before sharing an original mythical narrative that is age appropriate. In "To Be Alone With You," they emphasize their longing for a space where it is safe to be vulnerable like that again and how many others do, too. This storytelling narrative is interrupted by the imagery of a graveyard and the symbol of clawing oneself out of the ashes in the poem "In the Graveyard" as the speaker tries to find their voice-a "truth more audacious than stain-glass nudes perpetually shattered by insatiable longing." In the next poem, they are greeted by Shakti who questions if they are not yet ready for a Kundalini awakening. Guided along the Abrahamic traditions, several poems then meditate on sacrifice, grace, humility, grief, loss, and compassion before "Bathsheba" and desire is introduced to the dialogue. Writing in the Davidic tradition, "A Psalm" sublimates this desire into spirituality. The theme of humility returns as G. Gazelka writes another personal poem "Pronounced Love at the Scene" in which they capture their difficulties with phonics and fear that they will never have the right words to say to a person. They imagine in "Vows" what they might say and in "Unmapped" deliver another powerful personal poem in the style of Elizabeth Bishop that they are not sure who they are if not their purpose. The final two poems are meditations they created in the style of The Way of Life.