The Postcards I Never Sent

The Postcards I Never Sent is a beautifully sensual poetic memoir, rich with raw emotion and vulnerability. Patterson’s words dance between love, loss, leaving, and returning. It is an honor to witness these poems becoming their own small rebellions on the page. This book transports us between time and place, from nature to the divine, all in a search for new and cosmic beginnings.”

—Nia McAllister, poet, Senior Public Programs Manager at Museum of the African Diaspora

In The Postcards I Never Sent, Patterson journeys through stories of love, grief, accountability, and redemption. This collection is Black girl healing. This collection boldly spotlights a broken heart and the trek one must take to mend it. This collection is proof that there is no running away from what hurts. Patterson’s ability to tackle the hardships in family, race, and marriage displays a strong vulnerability that is essential in poetry. It is an honest, comforting, and necessary read.

— Ari B. Cofer, author of paper girl and the knives that made her and unfold

The Postcards I Never Sent is emotive and imaginative, transcending the reader into Patterson’s world as she balances intimacy with raw exposure. In this body of work, Patterson honors and navigates the humanity of feminine, fragile, and fertile experiences, in a way that makes the pain and the hope of family and love accessible to us all. She shares her story with a unique delicacy and has created what many of us need: a collective space where the wildest parts of ourselves can both dance and be understood with such clarity. Lyn’s writing is a gift and an invitation to explore our personal nuances through the evocative ways she articulates her own.

—Chloe Dulce Louvouezo, author of Life, I Swear: Intimate Stories from Black Women on Identity, Healing, and Self-Trust

The Postcards I Never Sent is an explorative and transformative road trip towards healing. Patterson’s storytelling is a daring act of vulnerability, exposing the raw, softest parts of personal heartbreak and Black femininity. There is tangible magic metamorphosing in these words as Lyn guides us through her own journey of pain, growth, and fragility; welcoming the reader to embrace the sensuous chaos of being human. Patterson’s writing does not shy away from navigating nuanced topics, but rather her voice gracefully undresses them with her needed and important perspective. It is a collection that not only inspires reflection, but the redefining of our relationships with ourselves, others, and home.

—Laura Henebry, 2022 Fable Grant Recipient

Lyn Patterson’s writing is a tour de force of movement and rhythm. She so deftly shifts between writing styles all while keeping a cohesive lyrical precision throughout. Through this journey, readers get to witness personal exploration and excavation in many forms. These poems invite the reader to examine the infinite complexities and the subtle nuances of relationships—with our communities, our histories, our loved ones, and ourselves. Patterson has given us a collection that is so sweepingly immersive, I swear I sunk into these pages and then emerged gasping and awestruck on the other side.

—Amy Kay, poet and educator

Patterson is a master wordsmith, a vivid memoirist, a radical thinker, and a sensual world-builder. Her collection of poetry is both deeply personal while constantly touching something at the root of every human heart. She writes poignantly about the never-ending intersections of identity in America just as easily as she chronicles a marriage torn apart by betrayal and mistrust Throughout the collection, Patterson shows she can flex a pen game that riffs on Biblical theology and BDSM with equal reverence. In this stunning second collection, Patterson proves to be required reading for contemporary poetry fans.

—Noëlle Lilley, Emmy-award winning journalist and reporter for News 12, New York