A New Type of Breakfast

By Elizabeth Mateer

A New Type of Breakfast traces the long aftermath of early hurt and the ways neglect, loss, and silence shape us long after the original damage has passed. The title poem marks a breaking point: the dissolution of hope, followed by the quiet possibility of a new beginning. From this undoing emerges a sharper moral clarity. The poems confront hypocrisy in institutions, in relationships, and in the stories we tell ourselves. Yet growth is not linear. Even with insight, we lapse. Longing persists. The tension between knowing better and still feeling deeply runs through the middle of the collection, where nostalgia, grief, and unresolved attachment surface without apology. Gradually, space opens. The poems begin to imagine trust again, not as certainty, but as risk. An encounter reshapes the understanding of what goodness, safety, and intimacy can look like. This moment becomes a turning point, expanding what feels possible. What follows is a season of intensity and release: desire, fantasy, disillusionment, and letting go. As the external world shifts, so does the inner one. Creativity returns. Ancestry and memory surface. Childhood wonder reappears, not as regression, but as reconnection. The collection closes with a sense of arrival. Not a tidy resolution, but a steadier ground: coming home to oneself with more solidity, more compassion, and more truth than before.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HBGJMXPJ
• ISBN13: 9798899906091
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Finishing Line Press
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.3" x 5.5"