Sign-In
Cart
Understories
Paperback
Publisher: Kelsay Books
Published: Mar 4 2026
Pages: 50
Weight: 0.18
Height: 0.12 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The darkness is a generous space, asserts Peter Schireson as he navigates the stories that underpin his life, a man deep / in the grey season. Like that filtered light beneath a forest canopy, his poems are both playful and meditative. The poet accompanied by Thelonius Monk / and a small glass of bourbon, / float[s] out into the silver mist / that hangs over the yard. At his mother's death, he recalls that he kissed her on the crown of her head / ever so gently. / When finally she left, / she was accompanied by clouds. In plainspoken language, these lyrics question meaning, legacy, and grief with imagination and tenderness: On the nightstand in a shaft of moonlight, / a photograph of my three granddaughters. Death may even have its consolations, martinis and Chinese noodles, / the afterlife at its most relaxed.
-Abigail Wender, author, Reliquary
Schireson's last book was magical. I imagined a tuxedoed man pulling stars from his breast pockets, hives of bees from his hat. Now, in Understories, the magician has become enlightened. He stands in a kitchen, in a clean sweat suit, relaxed, hands at his sides, as if to say, No tricks. It's a wonderful book.
-Peter Coyote, Zen teacher and author
Painters long ago mastered chiaroscuro to dramatize the space between light and dark, the contrast that captures what it is to be human: our angels and demons, our outer and inner selves, our lives and deaths. Schireson captures this interplay in Understories, always with empathy, often with a subtle smile. Schireson's writing is eye-level with the reader, as in Goodbye, Ice Cream Beneath the tree, / a tearful girl / with tiny fingers / touches her hair, / her prom dress / in her closet, / her first child / in her belly. Understories is a welcoming collection, always extending an invitation to linger longer.
-DJ Murphy, author, Seeking Ordinary Joy @djmurphypoetry
Also from
Schireson, Peter
Also in
General Poetry
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Alighieri, Dante
Pitavy, Francois
Paperback
Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse (by the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature)
Carson, Anne
Paperback
The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos (by the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature)
Carson, Anne
Paperback
Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera (by the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature)
Carson, Anne
Paperback
Sounding the Seasons Enlarged Edition: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year
Guite, Malcolm
Paperback
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Lao Tzu
Paperback
A Bowl of Goodness: Nourishing Poems with a Side of Soup, Celebrating Community, Friendship, and Resilience
Jackson, Major
Hardcover
Ariel: The Restored Edition: A Facsimile of Plath's Manuscript, Reinstating Her Original Selection and Arrangement
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback