Delicate Machinery: Poems on Survival and Healing edited by Erin Elizabeth Smith

In Delicate Machinery: Poems on Surviving and Healing, thirty-three authors share their experiences with sexual trauma, each poem raw and tender like a thumb pressing a bruise. It is a vulnerable exploration into profound anger, grief, betrayal—but the very existence of this anthology speaks to each writer’s tenacity, bravery, strength, and hope. Healing is rarely linear or simple, and these poems capture an enduring belief in continuing that chaotic journey. Delicate Machinery is a reminder that we are never alone in our pain, and these poems offer a space to reflect, mourn, and heal together. This anthology serves as a powerful testament to survivors’ ability to face their trauma and to keep choosing life, their lives, each day.

“Delicate Machinery is far from its definition. Raw, gutting, unflinching, this anthology is the embodiment of all the feelings that exist, emerge and triumph in the face of trauma. With every word, the readers are forced to reckon with their own complicity in how they’ve created the environment that is conducive for sexual violence and ultimately, face the truth of the world we inhabit. I encourage anyone who names themselves a champion for human rights to pick up this collection and sit with its rawness–heed its call so we can fashion a safer and braver society, together, one reclamation at a time.”
-Najya Williams, author of On a Date with Disappointment

“Delicate Machinery takes survivorship poetics beyond catharsis––it is a beautifully curated gathering place for poets writing the unwritable, without apology. The poems collected here capture the beauty and intensity of living on after experiences sexual violence within a sociopolitical climate that denies us bodily autonomy.”
– [sarah] Cavar, author of Failure to Comply and Differential Diagnosis