'Not Quite an Ocean' by Elizabeth M. Castillo is a paean to the feminine, to motherhood and to the natural world. At once these poems are both unabashed in their celebration of womanhood, and are searing in their unflinching confrontation with darker undercurrents that threaten to break and destroy. The poems in 'Not Quite an Ocean' are beacons, are rallying calls, and are ultimately a roars of strength, pride and hope that cannot be silenced or subdued:

To be woman is to be everything

All things bound together

and, if you can manage it

that little bit more