{"product_id":"checkered-mates-9781954353138","title":"Checkered Mates","description":"In a letter-poem to her first husband, who's having sex-change surgery, Tricia Knoll writes, \"You are wise to join us. We need all the smart ones we can assemble.\" Knoll might well chair that assembly herself; but the poet's piercing intelligence is enhanced in this superb collection by wryness, compassion, and often enough, humor. Precise and rangy at once, she seems to strike the right note no matter what she considers, her work aptly served by her uncanny eye for exact and eloquent detail.\u003cp\u003e-Sydney Lea, Poet Laureate of Vermont (2011-2015)The poems in Tricia Knoll's \u003ci\u003eCheckered Mates\u003c\/i\u003e-by turns tender, raw, and truthful-mark a departure from her usual work. Though her lifelong intimacy with the natural world remains omnipresent in this volume as well, she more often turns her incisive gaze toward humans and her own past relationships. Yet no matter the subject, the \"honest harvest\" of these poems is always their authentic unfolding so that we emerge from each poem, and the book as a whole, more aware of our own mortality, ready to \"break open \/ the way love does.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-James Crews, Editor of \u003ci\u003eHow to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude \u0026amp; Hope\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTricia Knoll is an original, her slant on life curious, generous, cheeky, and always surprising as she \"backtrack[s] matrimonial trails\" and \"embrace[s] bare facts,\" including the \"kindness of getting old.\" Whether standing on a dike in New Orleans, lifting weights with a friend, or waiting in the airport for an ex-husband who has undergone gender-affirming surgery, she remains alert to eros, compassion, and the play of metaphor. For all the life in her narratives, her rhythms and sounds are equal to them-\"Low-slung, the lunar face is acned styrofoam,\" or \"A soft wind dries the sweat of climb\"-as she moves through poems with the tenacity of a chess player. Mate. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Rebecca Starks, Author of \u003ci\u003eTime Is Always Now \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-11244826\"\u003eTricia Knoll\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Kelsay Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/13\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 54\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.19lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.11d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781954353138\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1954353138\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-POE\"\u003ePoetry\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-POE000000\"\u003eGeneral\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kelsay Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44438806167789,"sku":"9781954353138","price":20.63,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_1881dbae-fd55-4645-849b-a0961f24f641.jpg?v=1700151788","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/checkered-mates-9781954353138","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}