She writes so you can dream--Olivia Rose Umstead's debut collection, How Poetry Sounds, chronicles themes such as love, infatuation, and nostalgia in breezy, conversational poems, inviting audiences to remember their own special memories between her pages. Her voice is unmistakable.

"i know you know i think claude’s a geniusand even if you didn’t know at firstyou figured it out after countingthe met ticket stubs in my trash canand remarked that my college savingswere wasted on water lilies. you say you’ve been to the met tooand it’s nothing special.

you always did put me in my place. you probably stood too close to the wallsso the lilies were just brushstrokes ofpaint flung around the canvas.

like a toddler fingerpainting the kitchen table. then again, when i get up close to youyour blood rushes through your cheekslike all your senses flickering on at onceand all the while, those lilies still on the wall.

whether they’re brushstrokes or not,they’re not moving like you’re moving. "-Olivia Rose Umstead; "impressed by the impressionists".