Things That No Longer Delight Me

Things That No Longer Delight Me is a collection of poems about family and memory. This book is filled with objects. The author writes:

I like objects for company,

to decorate the plainest spaces, decorum

and

I amass details,

jade bracelet, her animal-print

dresses, an oval coral cameo.

How do objects counter loneliness, she asks, and speak to us of how to behave?

In Things That No Longer Delight Me, lyric is driven by a compulsion or need to collect, in order to make sense of the past and stay connected to it.

And what if that connection were to be lost? Confronting loss, the book pieces together a family history from stories fragmented and overheard. It asks: What is hearsay and what is history? It seeks to embody story, or historical detail, in lyric form. Resisting nostalgia, its poems respect what is diminished by grief or loss yet reveal details that hold sway over us and give us continuing pleasure.