Grant Chemidlin

How do you untangle the real you from the curated you? In this introspective yet whimsical collection, poet Grant Chemidlin takes readers into the thicket of self-discovery. What We Lost in the Swamp is a lush and vibrant collection of poems that examines the many manifestations of green: nature, inexperience, jealousy, burgeoning love, and exploring sexuality. It is a slow unfurling. It is a love letter to growth, to rediscovery, to finally learning how to speak the truth. These astonishing poems ask the reader: Who do you want to be in this world? How do you want to build a life? This is not a coming out. This is a coming in to one's truest self.

Poems

What We Lost in the Swamp

Kierce

I watched the shame leap into the pond of your face. O the ripples. 

How many bones did my dog days hide in the dirt before the fully formed skeleton rose on its own & walked away?

brave as the bracing, pin-thin nail, always standing up to the hammer’s heavy hit. 

I want to feel at home everywhere I go like the slow-moving snail

my anger, my doing, the little builder man inside my throat unfurls, walks around in circles, stomping his feet, reciting my apology. 

can’t the two of us put down our love like an old family dog?

sculpting castles from my mounds of endless time. How fast the sandbox turns into an hourglass. 

What We Lost in the Swamp quotes

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