Would We Still Be, Paperback

In Would We Still Be, James Henry Knippen crafts the anxieties that emanate from human existence--grief, fear, hopelessness, uncertainty--into poetic reflections that express a deep reverence for the musicality and incantational capacity of language. Like a moon or a wren, two of the book's obsessions, these haunting poems call us to consider beauty's connection to the transitory. Among the ghosts that wander these pages--those of loved ones, those we are, and those we will become--Knippen asks if image is enough, if sound is enough, if faith is enough. In doing so, these poems seek out the soul's communion with voice, encouraging us to sing our fate.

About author(s):James Henry Knippen's poetry has appeared in 32 Poems, AGNI, Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, and West Branch, among other journals. He is the poetry editor of Newfound.