Afterswarm

You fetch / the daily things. You go on. There’s nothing else to do.

In Afterswarm, Margot Schilpp reveals and revels in the deep comfort we take in the common objects, people, and circumstances of our lives. She draws our attention back to those that have grown invisible in their familiarity, asking us to pause and weigh the significance of what we regularly encounter. The poems in this volume question and insist, return and twist, and ultimately point us toward the grace we can find in what’s often overlooked.

Afterswarm is a collection of powerful, sometimes kaleidoscopic meditations on the human condition in a universe akin to Stephen Crane’s, one which has ‘no sense of obligation’ for our existence. The trials of mutability, heartbreak, alienation, and mundanity are met with stoical tenacity (and, occasionally, wry humor) while ‘shimmerings’ of beauty and love are ‘syncopated against loss.’ These poems strike deep. And Schilpp’s unembellished eloquence, musician’s ear, and eye for evocative detail energize every page of this extraordinary book. -William Trowbridge, author of Vanishing Point