When I Return As Rain

When I Return as Rain is a collection of poems about loss, belonging, motherhood, and the sacred work of becoming. Written in the aftermath of profound change, these poems move through the landscapes of single motherhood, domestic violence, grief, and displacement while tending the quiet miracles of resilience, friendship, and community. Moving between the intimate and the ancestral, this collection explores what is carried across generations—through blood, story, silence, and love. Drawing on the imagery of the dramatic seasonal shifts in Chiapas, Mexico, Celestine Kibe Kergoët weaves together personal and collective histories in a meditation on healing, resilience, and renewal. At once elegy and prayer, When I Return as Rain invites readers into the possibility that what has been broken can become a source of nourishment, and that every ending contains the seed of return. Tender, fierce, and deeply human, this book is an offering for anyone who has had to begin again.