Accidental Devotions

by Kelli Russell Agodon

Witty, humorous, and oh so tender, Accidental Devotions reminds us that in the end, life is a brief devotion of moments--beautiful, accidental, and always--gone too soon.


Kelli Russell Agodon's latest collection, Accidental Devotions, seeks to find meaning in a world lit by screens and haunted by ghosts--both real and digital. Blending humor with vulnerability, these poems embrace the beautiful chaos of our relationships, of aging and being human. Here, explorations of desire, technology, and spirituality ring out like birdsong through a chapel. Sharp and playful, Accidental Devotions is for the quiet rebels and devoted readers--for those who carry ashes to the beach, ask Alexa for guidance, keep Emily Dickinson's book on the nightstand, or fall in love mid-sentence. With queer tenderness, and an ongoing devotion to desire, these poems make room for grief and joy, pleasure and struggle. The result: a dazzling, defiant field guide to staying human.

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Accidental Devotions is serious and delicious. Just what we need in these challenging times. ~ Ellen Bass

I am a devotee of each of these erotic, botanical, angelic lines, each one pressed and saved like any beauty you wish to hold forever. Read these poems. Let everything in. ~ Traci Brimhall

This is a brave book, one that shows us there is nothing accidental about Kelli Russell Agodon’s devotions—but as we turn the pages, our own devotions might, perhaps, deepen. Bravo! ~ Ilya Kaminsky

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

Published May 12, 2026

About the author

Kelli Russell Agodon is a prize-winning poet, writer, and editor from the Northwest.

Kelli Russell Agodon’s newest book is Dialogues with Rising Tides from Copper Canyon Press. She is the cofounder of Two Sylvias Press as well as the Co-Director of Poets on the Coast: A Weekend Retreat for Women. Her last book, Hourglass Museum, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Awards and shortlisted for the Julie Suk Poetry Prize. She is the author of Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room (White Pine Press, 2010), Winner of the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Prize in Poetry, and a Finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She is also the author of Small Knots (2004) and the chapbook, Geography (2003). She co-edited the first eBook anthology of contemporary women’s poetry, Fire On Her Tongue, and recently published The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice, a book of poetry writing exercises she coauthored with Martha Silano.

She’s received awards from the Poetry Society of America, the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation, James Hearst Poetry Prize, Artist Trust, and the Puffin Foundation. Agodon lives in a sleepy seaside town in Washington State on traditional land of the Chimacum, Coast Salish, S'Klallam, and Suquamish people where she is an avid paddleboarder and hiker. She serves on the poetry faculty at the Rainier Writing Workshop, a low-residency MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University.

She writes about living and writing creatively on her blog, Book of Kells at: www.ofkells.blogspot.com

Visit her at www.agodon.com or on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/agodon

Twitter: @kelliagodon
Instagram: @kelliagodon

Or write to her directly at: kelli (at) agodon.com

For more information on Kelli, please visit: www.agodon.com

Reviews

[Ronda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kelli Russell Agodon, in Accidental Devotions, addresses in lush, and often gorgeously surreal, language what it means to be human in relationship with the natural and digital worlds, and in community other human beings. The speaker in this, Agodon’s fifth collection of poetry, speaks to the complexities of love and desire, queerness, death, and the afterlife. Emily Dickinson visits often, offering advice, whimsy, and text messages: “Hey Kel, it’s Em. You know we’re all right, / right? … Hey Kel, / call me…” The speaker observes: “When no one was looking, you tucked twenty dollars / into the hand of a stranger … and there was fluttering … a guardian angel with her hand on your hip.” Alexa and typos, God, gratitude, and the blues all find their way through Agodon’s exquisite lines. Her’s is a collection to savor, surrounded by the scent of jasmine, and the brush of feathers. When she tells us, “(h)old on / fiercely, little love—every road is divine,” believe her, and dive in.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of poems about love, loss, aging, sexuality, grief, and hope.

from In One Calendar Day, We Live a Thousand Lives: "But I'll keep reaching / for what is dying because temporary is more than // an adjective and I need to embrace what I can, / short-lived, momentary, while everything falls apart."

from Accidental Devotions to Poets with Smoldering Wings: "We calculate ghosts by stanza. As good witches, / we court disaster, mistake ourselves / for moths drawn to every blaze. // As rebel angels, we wear our halos / as tube tops, nose rings. Make no apologies / for our flame. And when our skin / scorches paper, we revises ourselves // as poems."

from Everything Is Equal When You're Distorted by the Afterlife: "We are old and everything is / sacred—the fireweed is thigh high and a friend is // dying. Or the sunflowers are. All things echo with loss. / Everything is equal when you're devoted // to the afterlife."

[Katie Kemple · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both digital and Dickinsonian, the poems in ACCIDENTAL DEVOTIONS contemplate spirituality and the technology shaping our lives. Often the intersection evokes humor as in "Accidental Devotion to a Smart Phone" where we overhear a man's dialogue into his phone—an apology to a loved one. The speaker wants the man to toss his phone into the ocean and select a seashell for the partner he's trying to win back. Electronics have a deistic presence in "Alexa Why Am I Falling Apart", "Some Days You Wonder if God Has Left the Group Chat" and "Accidental Devotion in Which My Search History Becomes a Prayer". These are the absurd moments of our era that benefit from fresh eyes, luckily Kelli Russell Agodon lends us hers. You cannot read these poems without wanting to see the world anew—and yes, to attempt to write about it with as much wit and elegance.

[Lisa C. Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wholly original and wonderful collection of poetry! I highly recommend this poet and this book. At times tender but also perceptive, Kelli Russell Agodon touches on the issues of our times with intelligence and wit.

[Jeannine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of charming, hopeful and funny meditations on such things as AI, young love, the state of the world. It's a thoughtful book that feels exactly right for our current time.

[Lucy Griffith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this brave work! Nobody plays with language quite like this master poet!