THE OFFING, poetry by Alison Palmer
Publication Date: November 15, 2024
Paperback, 56 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-89-9
In this stirring collection, Alison Palmer invites the reader to join her at the edges of love’s reach, examining the complexities of healing and grief through an observatory lens. Palmer considers how we both break and rebuild in the face of heartache without disappearing, “The air’s only air once / we realize disquiet in our lungs, / then take up our vanishing.” Through breathtaking imagery that juxtaposes human fragility with nature’s ability to endure, we are left to contemplate what it means to survive love and loss. Her succinct use of white space and control of the page creates a type of quiet intensity that leaves room to witness the raw nature of love’s tension and vulnerability when faced with the remaining wreckage of eroding relationships. Palmer brings us back to the visceral and challenges us to see our healing as not only imperative, but as enduring as nature’s pulse: “I palm each trunk; it’s safer to suffer— / each limb creaks against the wind / to know it’s here.” She navigates waves of emotional distance through unique descriptions of the delicate spaces that make up separation and renewal. Highlighted by captivating, elusive language, tender forgiveness, and powerful introspection, this narrative reinvents what it means to keep surviving in a deeply personal, yet universally resonant way. In the chasm of despair and hope, we find solace in The Offing.
Praise for Alison Palmer & The Offing
The Offing is achingly beautiful, a book that sifts love to its bones. “I know / what it’s like to grow so dark silence can’t // say my name,” Palmer writes. In twilight, in fog, in darkness, she pursues an elusive lover through an emotionally tangled but physically minimalist landscape. As the book progresses, the poems reach farther—from forests to moon and sky, eventually to the rings of Venus—in an effort, paradoxically, to “keep us here.” Long lines, short stanzas (monostichs, couplets, tercets) capture vastness on a bare stage. Sometimes switchback line breaks speak: “You’re my love- / sharp woman.” Elegant, delicate, pained but transcendent, this poetry renders love in an original and haunting way.
— Pamela Alexander’s latest poetry collection is Left (Beloit, 2024)
In one of The Offing’s early poems, Alison Palmer concludes, "Not everything is better in the light," yet this collection bravely brings readers through the grief of a lost relationship, showing us the way "Longing's become / different than love." Everything is better in the glow of Palmer’s lyricism.
—Katie Manning’s latest poetry collection is Hereverent (Agape Editions, 2023)
About the Author
Alison Palmer is the author of the poetry collection, Bargaining with the Fall (Broadstone Books, 2023), and poetry chapbooks, Everything Is Normal Here (Broadstone Books, 2022) and The Need for Hiding (Dancing Girl Press, 2018). Her work has appeared widely in journals such as FIELD, Crazyhorse (swamp pink), The Cincinnati Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Whale Road Review, The Los Angeles Review, Cimarron, and Columbia Poetry Review. In 2022, Alison was the recipient of an Independent Artist Award grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. She currently navigates coastal Virginia, and you can find her on the web: www.alisonpalmer.org.
Publication Date: November 15, 2024
Paperback, 56 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-89-9
In this stirring collection, Alison Palmer invites the reader to join her at the edges of love’s reach, examining the complexities of healing and grief through an observatory lens. Palmer considers how we both break and rebuild in the face of heartache without disappearing, “The air’s only air once / we realize disquiet in our lungs, / then take up our vanishing.” Through breathtaking imagery that juxtaposes human fragility with nature’s ability to endure, we are left to contemplate what it means to survive love and loss. Her succinct use of white space and control of the page creates a type of quiet intensity that leaves room to witness the raw nature of love’s tension and vulnerability when faced with the remaining wreckage of eroding relationships. Palmer brings us back to the visceral and challenges us to see our healing as not only imperative, but as enduring as nature’s pulse: “I palm each trunk; it’s safer to suffer— / each limb creaks against the wind / to know it’s here.” She navigates waves of emotional distance through unique descriptions of the delicate spaces that make up separation and renewal. Highlighted by captivating, elusive language, tender forgiveness, and powerful introspection, this narrative reinvents what it means to keep surviving in a deeply personal, yet universally resonant way. In the chasm of despair and hope, we find solace in The Offing.
Praise for Alison Palmer & The Offing
The Offing is achingly beautiful, a book that sifts love to its bones. “I know / what it’s like to grow so dark silence can’t // say my name,” Palmer writes. In twilight, in fog, in darkness, she pursues an elusive lover through an emotionally tangled but physically minimalist landscape. As the book progresses, the poems reach farther—from forests to moon and sky, eventually to the rings of Venus—in an effort, paradoxically, to “keep us here.” Long lines, short stanzas (monostichs, couplets, tercets) capture vastness on a bare stage. Sometimes switchback line breaks speak: “You’re my love- / sharp woman.” Elegant, delicate, pained but transcendent, this poetry renders love in an original and haunting way.
— Pamela Alexander’s latest poetry collection is Left (Beloit, 2024)
In one of The Offing’s early poems, Alison Palmer concludes, "Not everything is better in the light," yet this collection bravely brings readers through the grief of a lost relationship, showing us the way "Longing's become / different than love." Everything is better in the glow of Palmer’s lyricism.
—Katie Manning’s latest poetry collection is Hereverent (Agape Editions, 2023)
About the Author
Alison Palmer is the author of the poetry collection, Bargaining with the Fall (Broadstone Books, 2023), and poetry chapbooks, Everything Is Normal Here (Broadstone Books, 2022) and The Need for Hiding (Dancing Girl Press, 2018). Her work has appeared widely in journals such as FIELD, Crazyhorse (swamp pink), The Cincinnati Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Whale Road Review, The Los Angeles Review, Cimarron, and Columbia Poetry Review. In 2022, Alison was the recipient of an Independent Artist Award grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. She currently navigates coastal Virginia, and you can find her on the web: www.alisonpalmer.org.
Publication Date: November 15, 2024
Paperback, 56 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-89-9
In this stirring collection, Alison Palmer invites the reader to join her at the edges of love’s reach, examining the complexities of healing and grief through an observatory lens. Palmer considers how we both break and rebuild in the face of heartache without disappearing, “The air’s only air once / we realize disquiet in our lungs, / then take up our vanishing.” Through breathtaking imagery that juxtaposes human fragility with nature’s ability to endure, we are left to contemplate what it means to survive love and loss. Her succinct use of white space and control of the page creates a type of quiet intensity that leaves room to witness the raw nature of love’s tension and vulnerability when faced with the remaining wreckage of eroding relationships. Palmer brings us back to the visceral and challenges us to see our healing as not only imperative, but as enduring as nature’s pulse: “I palm each trunk; it’s safer to suffer— / each limb creaks against the wind / to know it’s here.” She navigates waves of emotional distance through unique descriptions of the delicate spaces that make up separation and renewal. Highlighted by captivating, elusive language, tender forgiveness, and powerful introspection, this narrative reinvents what it means to keep surviving in a deeply personal, yet universally resonant way. In the chasm of despair and hope, we find solace in The Offing.
Praise for Alison Palmer & The Offing
The Offing is achingly beautiful, a book that sifts love to its bones. “I know / what it’s like to grow so dark silence can’t // say my name,” Palmer writes. In twilight, in fog, in darkness, she pursues an elusive lover through an emotionally tangled but physically minimalist landscape. As the book progresses, the poems reach farther—from forests to moon and sky, eventually to the rings of Venus—in an effort, paradoxically, to “keep us here.” Long lines, short stanzas (monostichs, couplets, tercets) capture vastness on a bare stage. Sometimes switchback line breaks speak: “You’re my love- / sharp woman.” Elegant, delicate, pained but transcendent, this poetry renders love in an original and haunting way.
— Pamela Alexander’s latest poetry collection is Left (Beloit, 2024)
In one of The Offing’s early poems, Alison Palmer concludes, "Not everything is better in the light," yet this collection bravely brings readers through the grief of a lost relationship, showing us the way "Longing's become / different than love." Everything is better in the glow of Palmer’s lyricism.
—Katie Manning’s latest poetry collection is Hereverent (Agape Editions, 2023)
About the Author
Alison Palmer is the author of the poetry collection, Bargaining with the Fall (Broadstone Books, 2023), and poetry chapbooks, Everything Is Normal Here (Broadstone Books, 2022) and The Need for Hiding (Dancing Girl Press, 2018). Her work has appeared widely in journals such as FIELD, Crazyhorse (swamp pink), The Cincinnati Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Whale Road Review, The Los Angeles Review, Cimarron, and Columbia Poetry Review. In 2022, Alison was the recipient of an Independent Artist Award grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. She currently navigates coastal Virginia, and you can find her on the web: www.alisonpalmer.org.