As a grandmother with a love for art and the written word, Kathryn SchwauSch Branson offers a youthfulness to guide a younger audience through life’s most challenging moments with a passion for its most innocent endeavours. And she does this by offering a combination of the two mediums in her first-ever poetry collection, “Sure Strength”. The book’s front cover artwork—featuring a flamingo—is Branson’s own original painting, while the back cover features an original painting by her son, Matthew Russell Schwausch.
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She possesses an unwavering affection for family and the grace of God, so her poetry is without doubt a personal touch of excellence. With love for her family, son, and admiration for her best friend, who she says “brilliantly” works at eighty years old, Branson’s verse aims to reflect the uniqueness of soul and spirit. And her own brilliance, especially after life’s trials have tested her, from facing a rare lung disease that doctors claimed would end her life in the year 2000, to surviving 17 failed back surgeries—one of which led to an infection and resulted in a coma, to losing her brother to COVID and losing her husband to a car accident in 2021.
Through an exploration of self that weaves together themes of family, faith, and resilience, “Sure Strength” is a collection we can recognise as not just inclusive of poetry—it is a raw and vivid spiritual memoir. The introduction seems to set the tone for this, as Branson does not hesitate in sharing the moments of her life that for sure tested her spirit, such as the time she was hospitalised. But with the help of her family, readers can almost see their phantoms linger throughout the verse, even when they have done no colourful justice to Branson’s canvas, leaving behind an innocently Gothic scent that lingers beneath the brokenness, leaving us with an eagerness.
What You Need to Know About Kathryn SchwauSch Branson’s “Sure Strength”:
The God After Bad
It is the conflicting duality of her verse that makes it shine beyond the surface. It is almost as though she has an ethos of flowers will petal, but only with rain, making a younger audience acknowledge the realness in emotion and that they should embrace it with God’s grace.
Many younger people may not have much guidance, so it is almost as though Kathryn SchwauSch Branson’s creative output allows for new information into the youthful mind, empowering the poet as she offers emotional stability all over again in her later life. But this time through introspection. Branson is a firm believer in believing and finding yourself, especially in the hard moments, which is shown throughout her verse. Especially in the opening poem, “Sure Strength”, which speaks of her son finding himself, enlightening us on the fact that themes of discovery intertwine with faith.
The title poem, “Sure Strength”, with which the collection begins, proves more than just a name. Other than to have been the inspiration for her title, the inclusion of “strength” seems to read as a great metaphor for her beloved son. And not just her son, but also her treasured friends and love for life in general, echoing that life and everyone in it is strong and capable.
Another stand-out poem on the first fingers of the collection is “Blessings Woven Within Burdens”. Branson incorporates an alliterative tone for its title, which sets its tone as playful yet proper. The poet communicates to the audience that blessings come within the long processes of waiting—and she does this alluringly through an insertion of self. We can almost picture she and her hopefulness through enjambment excellence.
The belief of Kathryn SchwauSch Branson’s verse possessing gothic undertones as faith and suffering coexist is encapsulated in this poem, and at this point. The first two lines: “unsettled in / this world yet” instantly enable the audience to connect with her on a deeper, emotional level. It appears Branson pieces together her thoughts as does the audience, highlighting that traumatic events can induce fragmented ways of thinking and feeling. Still, the opening line alone conveys something unsettling and leaves the reader with lively tension.
Funnily, it is within these thought processes that we can somewhat picture God and his guidance on the spaces that are left unfilled. As God seems to perform his duties, in the middle of the verse, Branson finds herself searching. But wants us to know that searching comes with rest, as Branson infers, we can be on pause. It is important to feel anxious. And anxiety, of course, falls under the gothic rubric, shining a light on the verse’s Jekyll-and-Hyde nature.
Her Guide for Us
Kathryn SchwauSch Branson writes, “I wrote these words to show that even in brokenness, God rebuilds us whole through love. It is my hope that others find peace and encouragement through these poems, just as I found healing in writing them.”
Her strong-mindedness for sure runs throughout “Sure Strength”, as she feels her words would not touch without it, and that of God. He almost acts as part of the metaphor in the title, and we can see that the title is short for many things: familial, marital, spiritual, and psychological. The collection is a perfect blending of the roads we walk down on. If you’re lost in a foggy youth and are searching for spiritual paths, “Sure Strength” is a collection for you.
Petals About the Book
Published independently with the help of Atticus Publishing, “Sure Strength” is available for purchase on Amazon in eBook and paperback formats, with it also being available in paperback on Waterstones. Additionally, in the collection, there are also poems which touch upon nature to act as a source of healing. Her poem, “Petals”, makes us even more curious about this.
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