The Only Thing That Matters

by Kim Jensen

The poems in Jensen’s powerful new collection have the speed and instability of linguistic particles traveling outward from a primal light with darkness, oppression with liberty, doubt with certainty, and faith with its impossible Other. Occupying a tense, fugitive space, the poems derive from the ideas and vocabulary of radical poet and novelist Fanny Howe into startling new formulations. Compact and evocative, Jensen’s lyrics are marked by the intensity of their moral commitment to matters of the world and matters of the heart. This is an important work, offering glimpses of what might be possible—if only the love, faith, and compassion that sustain us could themselves be sustained.

Kindle Edition

First published May 31, 2013

About the author

Kim Jensen is the author of the novel The Woman I Left Behind and a collection of poems, Bread Alone. Her poetry and other writings have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Poetic Voices Without Borders 2, the Baltimore Review, Al Jadid, Rain Taxi Review, Come Together: Imagine Peace, Left Curve, and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. She is associate professor of English at the Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland.