Full Description
In Sublunary, Lisa Richter explores what it's like to live "under the moon" in a world that is simultaneously a heartbreak and a total wonder. Sweetmeats and ocelots rain from the sky. Pets are shadow puppets. A kitten impersonates a teacup. A grieving daughter travels back in time to be at her father's side in the final hours of his life. Newlyweds soar over the rooftops of west-end Toronto, passing a violin-playing goat along the way. From Atlantis to Mount Olympus to Christie Pits, these poems interweave moments of absurdity and awe, creating a nuanced portrait of what "a reckless intimacy with the world" might look like—for better or worse. Sublunary is a book of elegy, play, and rupture that advocates for an ethics of care, solidarity, and compassion for our perfectly imperfect selves and each other: a mode of survival that is full-throated and, at times, even joyous.
Contents
Staying Power
I.
False Awakening
Frog Rain
Crashing the Floodgates
Tabula Rasa
Flotsam and Jetsam
The Thrill of the Find
Blood Concordance
Equinox in the Crystal Forest
A Portrait Made of Seaweed
I'm Not Being Hard on Myself, You're Being Hard on Yourself
Onism for Beginners
If You're Anything Like Me
At the Oracle of Delphi
Be Someone Who Would Have Been Burned at the Stake 500 Years Ago
Aesthetics
II.
Marc Chagall
Missed Flight
Lower Soul
Days of Awe
Reading Zagajewski
Three Years, Two Months and Twelve Days After My Father Dies Overseas
Mountain Concordance
Communiqué from the Fortunate Islands
Epithalamium
Loss Isn't so Important
Moon Phasery
Ghazal with Malbec, No Cigarettes
The Pomegranate Year
Spring Poem Ending with a Line from Roo Borson
Ulcerative Colitis Remission Conditional
Winter Solstice
Unboxing Day
Self-Portrait as Demolished Supermarket
Hauntological
Artifact Inventory
Disassembly Line
III.
Whatever It Takes
The Fish Trees
Communiqué from Atlantis
Bloordale Elegy/li>
Yes, and
Against "The Road Not Taken"
Modern Miracles
How the Moon Invents Memory
Cloud Concordance
Still, Life
Anabasis
If You Dwell on a Grave While Out of Breath
Sea Grief
Marriage Tales
Minor Worries
Today the Universe Can Be Viewed by Members Only
Marvelosity
Hermit Aria
Living Will
Between Falling to Earth and Floating in Space
Sublunary
Notes
Acknowledgments
