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“A small tight rain
was falling, damp-
ening the tough grass where my astonishment lay.”

Reading Study for Necessity by the 2014 Iowa Poetry Prize Winner Joellen Kwiatek was a treat. One I took in very slowly. Many of her poems are very short, reflections so full of unexpected connections and imagery it sometimes felt like seeing tiny hallucinations unfold on paper. And sometimes I wasn’t to sure whether it was writer or reader hallucinating.

“They look out as if seeing
were a form of radiant
isolation, leafless
as the sea and
like the sea, a fisher of men”

Her poems hold the invitation to be read several times. Her usage of language and the way she breaks her lines allow for so many different images to unfold and make her poetry incredible dense and utterly beautiful.

Highly recommended.