Thousands: poems

“Dear fear, dear darkness, dear misunderstandings, dear life, dear lost-in-myself, I am no longer afraid of you. Now I have this book. I have Lightsey Darst’s amazing and ecstatic meditation on being a person in the world, I have these poems to guide me, I have her bravery and wild mind, I have her spells and wisdom, I have these incredible poems to carry with me wherever I go.” —Matthew Dickman

“Lightsey Darst’s ability to find astonishment within and without—to lift the story of many varied days inside a set of years inside and outside of a marriage, a love affair, and a pregnancy—until it sings with revelation, drew me into Thousands immediately and never let go. Thrillingly unafraid to state what women are often dismissed for stating, Darst elevates language into something so wholly artful that neither the poems nor the grit can be denied. In Thousands, Darst takes longing and ecstasy and melancholy and doubt back from the patriarchy to write toward the canon of the future.” —Lynn Melnick