Structure

The poems assembled within this collection attend to the task of familial intimacy. While they acknowledge the etiquette and function of family, they also interrogate how family can quietly fail. Such failures, particularly in my family, so often rest upon what is spoken and unspoken: the stray history of an uncle, a grandmother forgetting her own name or the discussions of a mother and son in their car are all thresholds of intimacy and distance. With such an attention to communication, this collection explores how the formality and playfulness language might both bind and delight those who must navigate it. As both of my parents are baby boomers, the mentality of the mid 20th century has also greatly shaped my family and my poetry. I investigate the culture and history of this era by writing about, for example, Western films, the Vietnam War, and artists like Andrew Wyeth. In this sense, these poems paint a portrait of my family by probing the relationship between culture and life, language and intimacy.