Bright Shade is an appreciation of the wild woods, the rolling hills, the Appalachian air, and the little rivers that were the setting of Chelsea Harlan’s upbringing. The poems speak through the liminal space between the body and its relationships to other bodies, and the human relationship with nature—and so climate change is, inevitably, part of this book’s undercurrent of grief. As the author navigates the high highs and the low lows of manic depression, Bright Shade articulates the wonder that accompanies sadness and the sadness that accompanies joy. Chelsea Harlan’s work is humorous, indeed bittersweet (bright / shade), and a little strange in exactly the right way.
ISBN: 9780986093869
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780986093852
Format: Hardcover
The Big Egg
Woof, mindfulness is
exhausting but the thing is it’s
so ineffable it’s resistant to
irony
Mindfulness doesn’t give a fuck
about what you think about mindfulness
That’s the beauty of it, I say
The moon sure is full of
itself Do you ever see a
rabbit in it churning some butter, or
Mindfulness’s indifferent, like the wind
That’s beautiful, he says thoughtfully
and carefully all falls still in the yard
Thank you, I reply
walleyed, I put it in a
romantic poem
I put the moon in most passwords