{"product_id":"if-not-these-things-paperback-1","title":"If Not These Things - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eKenneth Chamlee\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKenneth Chamlee's \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eIf Not These Things\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e embodies some of the most precise and detailed sentences that I've read, in poems of constant discovery and nuance. You can feel the poet's mind here, flying over this book's landscape like the shadow of a flock of birds. Words are like atoms, the more pressure you put them under, the more radioactive they become. These poems hide their labor and assimilate into the reader \"just as seamless as you please,\" but every reader that encounters them will \"drift forward, without knowing why\" to the next poem, their minds flecked with images that they cannot forget.\u003cbr\u003e-Keith Flynn, author of \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Skin of Meaning\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e and editor of \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Asheville Poetry Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his wonderful new collection, Ken Chamlee asks the enormous questions, chief among them: \u003ci\u003e \u003ci\u003eWhat is it like, and what is the human cost, to tread on this mysterious earth?\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e Indeed, so many of these marvelous poems are rooted in the natural world-a world capricious with dreams, imminent danger, and wild epiphanies. Nothing escapes the poet's soulful gaze, from the infinitesimal to the grand. In an early poem in\u003ci\u003e \u003ci\u003eIf Not These Things, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e the speaker elegantly inquires: \"Can any poem endure \/ like an ambered ant's \/ clear vesture?\" Chamlee then goes on, poem after memorable poem, to answer unequivocally, resoundingly, \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eYes.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e-Joseph Bathanti, North Carolina Poet Laureate (2012-14), author of \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eLight at the Seam\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA clear and tender eye for unexpected correspondences which rise, like whales in suburban lawns, from the quotidian, is what Kenneth Chamlee's \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eIf Not These Things\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e offers. The poems begin with a vision of the jet stream dipping \"down like a gourd, ladling away summer\" and go on to find and make meaning in the singular, familiar moments which define every life: sounds of a mysterious animal giving birth in the attic, an elusive pinata, a walk with the dog, the strange dreams which haunt a couple denied children. \"And if not these things,\" the poet asks, \"then what \/ is one day in all \/ your life?\" What indeed? \u003cbr\u003e-Catherine Carter, author of \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eLarvae of the Nearest Stars\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 102\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.24 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 29, 2022\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47350673965305,"sku":"9781639801589","price":31.05,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/ZzQzV05LRUduYVcxaTRWeGlSQks3Zz09_7b388809-0daf-4fc7-b22c-900db2212bdb.webp?v=1769789963","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/if-not-these-things-paperback-1","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}