Welcome Calm, Silence Tyrants: Adult Lullabies
by Melanie Weldon-Soiset, Poet
Forthcoming with Shanti Arts, September 2026
First, a book description:
Welcome Calm, Silence Tyrants: Adult Lullabies is a unique and beautiful exploration of the varied roles of lullabies across time and cultures. Introduced by a descriptive essay grounded in extensive research, debut author Melanie Weldon-Soiset reveals that lullabies are not only soothing songs, but also lament, blessing, secret confession, and songs of work and action. Lullabies speak to a culture’s fears and dreams. If the Smithsonian and the Calm app collaborated on a joint book in common, it would be Welcome Calm, Silence Tyrants. Diverse in form and topic, these adult lullabies invite the benevolence of safe slumber that is grounded in social justice.
And now, some back story:
I wrote Welcome Calm, Silence Tyrants in response to Toni Morrison’s sage advice that we must write the books that we need to read. I have a long-standing obsession with lullabies; this enchantment has led to multiple visits to the Library of Congress for research, hours of listening to lullaby albums, as well as years of writing my own bedtime songs. Welcome Calm, Silence Tyrants is the fruit of those amusements. My forthcoming book not only includes a detailed introductory essay (“Poems for Rest and Resistance,” which explores the history, prevalence, politics, and superpowers of lullabies), but also original lullabies divided into nine sections based on prominent themes.
Here’s a sneak preview of just a few of the lullabies found in Welcome Calm, Silence Tyrants:
- Crowdsourcing (snuggling in the section “Lullabies for Environmental Justice”)
- Lullaby as Lament (snuggling in the section “Lullabies for Sadness, Rage, and Taboos”)
- How to Do Nothing (snuggling in the section “Lullabies for Healing, Blessing, and Protection”)
- A Turn in the River (snuggling in the section “Lullabies for Sleepless Nights”)
- Autobiography of an Origami Lantern (snuggling in the section “Lullabies for a Compassionate World”)
As a highly sensitive person (HSP) who experiences insomnia as well as a rich dream life, I’ve also found deep value in reading and writing lullabies as poetry. Putting together this book of lullaby poems has taught me much about how to regulate my nervous system, as well as how to nurture my interior landscape. Welcome Calm, Silence Tyrants likewise explores the subtle, subversive, and powerful ways that lullabies can cultivate social justice.
I’m a poet who loves to play with form and structure, which is a way I make order out of chaos. If you’re looking for a book that promotes better sleep, nourishes the imagination, supports cozy rest, and offers thoughtful and accessible lullaby poems for poetry beginners and seasoned poets alike, then Welcome Calm, Silence Tyrants is for you.
I’m honored that Maggie Smith has offered the following endorsement for Welcome Calm, Silence Tyrants:
Other endorsers include Kathleen Driskell, author of Goat-Footed Gods and Kentucky Poet Laureate 2025-2026, Erin Keane, author of Runaway: Notes on the Myths That Made Me and Demolition of the Promised Land, and Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, author of Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways.
I’ll post more once Welcome Calm, Silence Tyrants becomes available for sale later this summer.
For now, here’s a picture of me holding a physical copy of my very first book:
