In Anticipation of Grief by Jenn Monroe

Poetry
40 pages
6" x 7" single signature with hand sewn binding
Published August 2015

From the Designer, Dana Hoeschen:

Sometimes while I am reading through the incredible manuscripts we publish each year there is one poem or story or paragraph or line that sticks to my mind, embeds itself in my consciousness and forever changes my perspective. Jenn Monroe's collection of poems In Anticipation of Grief is full of those poems, lines and paragraphs. Here is one of my favorite, for its image and its metaphor and most of all for its use of compelling language.

In Case

In case there are not five stages of grief but just one, and in case
she—grief I mean—is a yellow and black garden spider, hungry,
wanting me warm, heart full, blood rushing with the loss I knew
would come but could do nothing to stop. In case denial leads me
straight to her web and caught, my struggle leaves me more and more
entangled until she finds me, just off center, stuck fast among the glitter
of sun-struck dew. In case she wraps me tight for what comes next,
sinks fangs into my tender flesh, drains every ounce of what enabled
me to thrive. In case you find me hollow, left to scatter with thin threads
after her abandonment—remember, I was not always like this.