Ardor

by Alyse Knorr

The new collection from poet Alyse Knorr meditates on love and motherhood in the context of environmental crisis, foregrounding the domestic in a quest to continually re-imagine a hopeful future. At the intersections of eco-poetics and queer family-building, ARDOR moves across the political and natural landscapes of Alaska, Colorado, and the deep American South. These poems meditate on love and motherhood in the context of environmental crisis, foregrounding the domestic in a quest to continually re-imagine a hopeful future.
"'I was supposed to be wiser,' Alyse Knorr writes in ARDOR, her capacious meditation on lesbian love, marriage, motherhood, domesticity, and vocation. Who hasn't felt the same? In this collection, brimming with deftly rendered landscapes, deep reckoning with our zeitgeist, and rich, literary allusions, Knorr's wisdom is continuously revealed through her speaker's questions. This speaker asks, 'What am I minding but stillness? What have I grown except loss?' She asks, 'When did we last surprise each other, in this yard or any other?' She asks, 'What gained and what risked by changing the terms?' And when she asks, "What delights will transfigure you today?," I answer, This book. It seems impossible to read ARDOR any way but ardently."--Julie Marie Wade, author of When I Was Straight and Just an Ordinary Woman Breathing "Alyse Knorr's ARDOR is without guile. Rarely does one find a poetry of such candor, enthusiasm, and keen compassion. At times funny, at times heartbreaking, the poems remind us that delight, joy, and passion remain ours to claim, to celebrate, even in the face of the dim future we have helped create on this planet. Confronted with the inevitable that at times separates them, the lover and the beloved, the parent and the child, the neighbor and the neighbor, the stranger and the stranger somehow keep and sustain each other. With each book, Alyse Knorr surprises us with a new voice, a new vision, a new possibility for the art of poetry."--Eric Pankey, author of Not Yet Transfigured "Concerned with naming, at once investigative and celebratory, Alyse Knorr's wonderful fifth collection speaks of queer love and mothering, of a 'world metered in motion, in sound, / constant and enveloping.' Whether the speaker is listening to the archives, debating Elizabeth Bishop's poetry, or charting a personal epistemology of the closet, Knorr's eye is tender, her voice generous."--Siwar Masannat, author of 50 Water Dreams Poetry. Nature. LGBTQ+ Studies. Women's Studies.

Genres: Poetry

83 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2023

Reviews

[Taylor Franson-Thiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the absolute pleasure of hearing Knorr read her poetry and AWP24 and immediately purchased a copy. To publish a collection so unafraid of a love poem in this day and age is brave and unflinching. These poems are an absolute delight. Inventive phrased, great imagery and a great command over language.

[Scott Dimovitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alyse Knorr's fourth full book of poetry is a testament to her mastery of language subtlety, and she shines in her ability to articulate the complexities of love, passion, and, yes, the human heart, while unsentimentally exploring the conflicting emotions of motherhood. She is aware that she is raising a child who knows exactly what she wants (a T-Rex toy!), yet realizes that “the end of growth is death.” In her poem “Recovery,” she observes her daughter touching grass for the first time, and she reflects on the need to seal this moment in words that will transcend time: “My only job is memory,” she writes, and she converts the daily bread of everyday life into a haunting poem that has a permanent artistic life of its own.