Our Lady of Not Asking Why

by Courtney Kampa

Winner of the 2016 New Issues Prize

Genres: Poetry

98 pages, Paperback

Published April 18, 2017

Reviews

[Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some amazing poems in this little book. I loved the way the various subjects - most prominently family dynamics and seemingly mundane personal events - get broken down into granular details and how those details are examined with descriptive precision.

[Holly Colbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, just like she was! Always a talent with words and in so many other things. I am so lucky to own a copy of this collection. An angel both here and there!

[Aline]

found this book within an otherwise unassuming stack in the BU English department building, read the first poem & was immediately hooked (“apiary heart. spooked-horse heart. heart like a pink moon risen high / in the chest” 💘!) so rich in its attention to both earthly & divine conversations & thoroughly convincing in the precise “ratifying pulse” of its language

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

kampa has a way of simultaneously being subtle and being bare. an exquisite collection.

"How little love is. / How worth everything."

"because though he's just left you, he won't leave you / until he's seen you safely / on your way - the good-guy, the gentleman, fearing nothing / so much as appearing not to be. He has to think a little louder to be heard / above these speeches corked / inside him, the ones he knows you wouldn't listen to in a way he would enjoy. He has watched you die / before. His silence which is a doorlessness / the streets comes, also, to resemble. His hands half-hidden in his shirt sleeves / like a boy."

"Lie down with us / in our lives, they say, There is always more / of the world, they say, She is meaner now, and / more beautiful."

[Abby Stae · Rating 5 out of 5]

truly a beautiful and heartbreaking work of art.

i recommend looking up the poem ‘baby love’ by courtney kampa, but also had other personal favorites in ‘short essay at the sink’, ‘miscarriage’, and ‘skin and other weapons’

[Carly Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some wonderful movements and tonalities throughout the poems, gracefully moving through the levels of narrative and lyric clarity. "Cardiac" (the opening poem) found me at the perfect time, and I have been rereading/reciting it to myself everyday since I began this book.

[Trina Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been carrying this lil book around everywhere with me since Christmas morning. Every one of these poems is a gem and dear Courtney Kampa, I want MORE!!!!

[Alison Littman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vulnerable and striking--Kampa let's us in on her family life and history of love. It's just stunning all around.

[Aryn Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Courtney really captures the

[Caslene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really beautiful poems. I found that I enjoyed the ones about her family (and especially Grace) the most.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Runaway heart / praying like hell that it’s followed.” (Cardiac)

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

sat on the train rereading the same poems over and over because they were that good…i feel like i have been seen/this is an easy 5 star

[Jacqueline Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will definitely be taking the “Short Essay” poem format with me into my own writing practice. This collection is so grounded in the world, in those small moments of connection and difficulty.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some wonderful lines in this collection of poems, but at times I found some of the language to be a bit confusing and slightly imprecise, which would momentarily take me out of the poem as I tried to regain my understanding of the context.

[lou garciadolnik]

a book full of love

[Ingvild · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will confess that I have a tough time with poetry. It's often written in metaphorical and roundabout ways that my little head can't quite process. I sometimes derive no meaning from it at all, as if I'm reading something very old where I only understand 1/3 of the words. Some of the texts in Our Lady of Not Asking Why were like that for me, which is why I can't give it five stars. I simply don't comprehend the basic meaning. Other texts, however, were beautifully brilliant. Several of them moved me to tears, and reminded me of what good poetry is to me. It seems to be a very individual genre, but there are certain works that are just... good. Like Ars Biologica, or Baby Love. Those texts just can't be doubted. They are emotional, comprehensive, and beautifully crafted.

I do recognise, however, even with the poems that don't speak to me personally, even the ones that I don't understand, that there is a lot of work behind them, and that Courtney Kampa is very talented. So overall I can absolutely recommend Our Lady of Not Asking Why to any lover of poetry.