Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Absence

Absence

Manning, Nancy

Paperback

General Poetry

ISBN10: 1639809937
ISBN13: 9781639809936
Publisher: Kelsay Books
Published: May 12 2025
Pages: 48
Weight: 0.17
Height: 0.12 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Following Shakespeare's command to Give sorrow words that introduces Absence, Nancy Manning establishes the overall theme of multiple kinds of loss. Objects like her Noni's cuckoo clock and her father's black-and-red check jacket she saved from the rag bag have great power. Manning shows compassion for students who have tattooed my heart, for nine-year-old Pawana sold into marriage, and for victims of war-torn Ukraine. The deaths of her friend Beth and Beth's brother, Larry, whose death strangled like a cord, hang like a weight on Manning's heart. To persevere she imagines flying away with a dragonfly to escape the earthly load of life, and she describes how a lone white iris in a Van Gogh painting defies being picked or forgotten. Utilizing an abundance of sensual detail, Manning knows what is preserved will not be forgotten, even while she fails to find a way, so death would never haunt me. Absence is infused with a hard-won understanding of what it means to be human because Manning has cored it from the heart.


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