The Present

by Emily Kendal Frey

“Outside all kinds of movement / The sun at an angle, illuminating leaves / My dad dies in reverse / I birth him by my choice to live”

Genres: Poetry

42 pages, Paperback

Published March 13, 2025

About the author

EMILY KENDAL FREY is the author of THE GRIEF PERFORMANCE as well as several chapbooks and chapbook collaborations, including Airport (Blue Hour 2009), Frances (Poor Claudia 2010), The New Planet (Mindmade Books 2010), and Baguette (Cash Machine 2013). A second collection, SORROW ARROW, was published by Octopus Books in 2014. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where she hosts The New Privacy.

Reviews

[Jerry Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome lines and imagery. Her writing is so strangely moving. Many lines hit so harder than I expected, in such unexpected ways. I find myself thinking of them for much much time after reading them.

Favourites: "The Pain of Living", "Thank You, Ancestors", "I Am Not Always Happy But I'm Free", "Frances".

[Elise]

Quietly hopeful

[Peter Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I'm not afraid of other people and their moods"

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfectly distilled capsule of grief, with shadows of hope and love.

My dad dies in reverse
I birth him by my choice to live.