Secretary of the Invisible Thing

by Lance Larsen

The Rattle Chapbook Prize Winner.
Writers are more porous than impermeable. In Secretary of the Invisible Thing (a phrase from Czeslaw Milosz), Lance Larsen tests this claim, not dictating so much as taking dictation. In Larsen’s case, this includes feeling haunted by his daughter’s dead name, by a greedy river whispering bring me a horse, by Anne Sexton’s favorite palindrome (“Rats live on no evil star”), by William Blake seeing angels in his garden, even by a stray cat in Florence who “speaks almost no Italian.” What better way to be both enchanted and bedeviled? What better way to celebrate Earth’s “broken backfiring beauty”?

Genres: Poetry

40 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2026

Reviews

[Jason Ly]

I found the poems and language to be creative and interesting, there's a playful tone in them that some might find annoying, but I enjoyed. Serious themes such as death are interwoven throughout the lighter ones of nature and everyday life in a way that feels surprisingly light and natural.

[Elizabeth Wolf]

Loved this collection. I have several pages dog-eared. Great imagery and inventive use of language. Congrats to the Larsens and Tim Green for a striking cover.

[Caroline]

This collection is a masterpiece.

[Kim]

Stunning poems with humor and gravity. No wonder so many of these picked up prizes and impressive publications individually! It’s rewarding to read such a strong batch of poems together. Maybe my favorite Rattle chapbook so far!