Insofar

by Sarah Gridley

Insofar is a collection of poems dedicated to analogical reasoning, seeking to remember basic terms of relation and proportion. Archival in mood, it works with and against the idea of an A–Z filing system. This alphabet is akin to a damaged rosary or abacus—an accounting system that carries on in the midst of physical or spiritual impairment. While the poems proceed alphabetically, there are gaps in representation, and redundancies. The poems get stuck in certain alphabetic registers and elide over others. Four of the poems share the same title, “Insofar,” as if transfixed by the relational reasoning set up by that adverbial phrase. The collection as a whole is cast in an adverbial mood, exploring disposition as a vital qualifier to thought and action. Its theology, insofar as it finds one, is earth-based, pluralistic, and cyclical. Its fondest prayer is that we come to our senses.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

Published April 21, 2020

About the author

BA Harvard University, 1990
MFA University of Montana, 2000

Assistant Professor of English, Case Western Reserve University