Long for This World. Poems by Karen McPherson, selected by Ron Mohring as Number Two in Volume Twelve of our Summer Kitchen Chapbook Series.

Release date:  July 28, 2024 [49 copies]
25 pages
$12.00

Cover: vintage marbled end papers.

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Oregon poet and literary translator Karen McPherson is the author of Skein of Light (Airlie Press, 2014) and the chapbook Sketching Elise (Finishing Line, 2012). Her work has appeared in literary journals including Beloit Poetry Journal, The Cincinnati Review, Potomac Review, december, and The Women’s Review of Books. Her translations include Up Close (Ekstasis Editions, 2023), a poetry collection by Québec poet Louise Dupré. Between 2013 and 2017 she was an editor in the Airlie Press poetry collective.

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Hearing May Be Last

Hearing may be last. But it was also first.
Conjuring distance, the voice of some far
god first spoke into a cloudy suspension where
for weeks there’d been no other, just the body’s
felt percussion, shared pulse and breath, no ear
to hear the calling and response.

I can easily imagine leaving my being behind
while knowing that I’ve been, and feeling
the loss of what is lifted from me. A return,
to silence, but with memories, maps, and traces.
 
Much harder to imagine myself unhistoried
in that dark chamber. Unarticulated preface
with no reference points. Before the sounds
came out of hiding.

Each word I pull now from the ether rides in
on waves of sound.  Texture, taste and smell
clinging to her coattails, the word announces herself—
husky, hesitant, or singing at the top of her lungs.

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• Limited edition: only 24 copies are available. Order yours here.
• Thank you for supporting this poet!