Reticent
A full-length poetry collection available at: http://gratefulsteps.org/rapidcart/index.html There is grief hidden behind every hand raised in farewell, every soft bell of laughter. We wear our loss like a winter coat, bodies bowed under the heavy burden. Some flaunt the mound of fur, while others hide in the folds. This collection is for the perspicacious chameleons—the quiet gatherers of stray glances and uncomfortable silences—for the terrariums you carry within your eyes, absorbing the tears of others with your moss-covered lashes. May your homes never shatter. “A wonderfully thoughtful and original volume of work.” — Nancy Dillingham, Author of Thanks for the Dark But That’s Not Home This Fluid Journey
A poetry chapbook available at: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/this-fluid-journey-by-abby-n-lewis/ “Abby N. Lewis is a young poet with an old soul, already aware of the losses of time, the pressures put upon us by growing older, and by the uncertainties of the future. She writes with rich imagery and real feeling for her subjects. The strongest poems here recognize the quiet joys of sisterhood, and the special freedoms that belong to childhood. Lewis, however, is not afraid to shine a light into the darker corners of a young woman’s experience, where even the bond between two sisters cannot protect from leering eyes and fearful dreams. This Fluid Journey begins a quest, a poet’s true course, and readers will surely discover many treasures along the way.” — Jesse Graves, Author of Basin Ghosts & Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine The child in This Fluid Journey is as familiar as memory. She lives and plays, wanders and wonders, and readers remember days and nights and former lives lost but not wasted. But this young poet understands when to cling to and when to put away childish things, and when the latter is called for, she invests more mature settings and experiences with the same charm and mystery that nature holds for the child. The poetry of Abby N. Lewis—its familiar and unexpected perspectives, its often fluid music, its soaring promise—seems imaginatively allegorized in the second stanza of ‘The Bridge’: ‘Moss gazes at the underbelly of the bridge / as a shadow covers the light which seeps / between closed blinds. The water’s whisper / grows to a timid babble as birds / adjust their wings in preparation for flight.’ ” — Michael Amos Cody, Author of Gabriel’s Songbook Palm Up, Fingers Curled
A chapbook available at: https://www.planbpress.com/store/p107/Palm_Up%2C_Fingers_Curled_by_Abby_N._Lewis.html Palm Up, Fingers Curled explores the tenuous–and dangerous–transition from innocent young girl to sexualized teenager. The title poem, “Palm Up, Fingers Curled,” which the cover is based on, describes the young female narrator sitting down at a table with her father and grandfather on her grandfather’s back porch, unknowingly entering a conversation about the brutal rape and torture of a young woman who was recently in the news. Another poem, the first in the collection, describes an event in which the narrator comes close to becoming a missing person, one of the invisible women who haunt billboards, their ghosts staring out of faded, wrinkled fliers. “Musical, intimate, and rich with story, Abby N. Lewis’s second collection, Palm up, Fingers Curled, reaches for the spaces between place, often a bucolic Appalachian place, and memory, often a haunting one. It is a space where things happen: identities are lost and found, time is broken and time is stitched back together. But most of all it is where “the hand extended / the silence,” the aching desire of being for being.” — D. Michael Jones, Author of The Byronic Hero: The Rhetoric of Masculinity in the Nineteenth-Century British Novel “Abby N. Lewis’s poetry collection immerses readers in the quiet intimacies of contemplation, examining the poignant tension between innocence and brutality. With a distinctive lyrical style, her work transforms unsettling narratives like ‘Palm Up, Fingers Curled’ and vivid images of leaves parachuting from their branches into powerful reflections on time. Each poem infuses emotional depth with a delicate interplay between beauty and harsh realities, showcasing Lewis’s unique ability to entwine stark truths with gentle introspection. Through her evocative and resonant language, Lewis offers a profound space for reflection that will captivate readers who appreciate thoughtful and lyrical poetry. This collection invites deep engagement with the complexities of human experience, making it a must-read for those drawn to both reflective and emotionally rich work.” — Matthew Gilbert, Poetry Editor, Black Moon Magazine |
Abby N. Lewis is the author of the full-length poetry collection Reticent (2016) and the chapbooks This Fluid Journey (2018) and Palm Up, Fingers Curled (2023). She has two MAs from East Tennessee State University. Her creative work has recently appeared in Up the Staircase Quarterly, Across the Margin, Timber, and Red Eft Review. Her book reviews can frequently be found on Chapter 16’s website. You can keep up with her on her website, freeairforfish.com.
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