Splashed Things
out now, where ever books are sold.
“Explores the rocky landscape of grief . . . recalling memories triggered in unlikely places. The narrator of Splashed Things undertakes the messy and complicated journey through life after losing a loved one as she attempts to piece together a coherent picture of the past.”
“A raw, intimate look at loss and the lingering of love, even after death.”
“A searing, rambling, sprawling, at times even funny, collection of grief poems about how to come to terms with that which is impossible to understand . . . Splashed Things doesn’t obey linearity or resolution, just a steady circling, honoring: a grand testament of love, and to the desire to keep on living.”
“Aptly titled, even despite the circumstances which surround the book’s genesis, Leigh’s collection has a remarkably fluid quality. The content of one poem spills and puddles into the next, the work’s meaning cumulative rather than immediate . . . Carefully constructed and organized . . . A kind of homage to life, even when one’s life is splashed by grief.”
“Forming a candid, prismatic exploration of loss, love, and living on, these poems look at the tragedy from many, often unexpected angles. They are especially attentive to the spaces around the event itself, in their search for a means with which to speak the unspeakable, survive the unthinkable, and reorient oneself in a profoundly changed world.”
“With her debut collection, Leigh Lucas navigates those tough questions about grief we are hesitant to answer: how do we choose to remember a person, what objects outline their absence, and when do we start to remember those we lose as more than just the loss? . . . A sterling debut collection . . . Lucas unfolds a tragedy in a way that reminds us we don’t have to concentrate on only what or who was lost; we may also consider how far that impact will go and how grief—like the physics of water–is dispersed and eventually settles.”
“A lyrical poetry collection that traces the aftermath of a loved one’s suicide, structuring grief across eight sections that move through shock, anger, bargaining, depression, and eventually, a hard-won reentry into life. Lucas explores how mourning destabilizes memory, identity, and even the body itself. The poems chronicle the speaker’s attempts to preserve the beloved amidst complicated rage and self-reproach, as well as her evolving relationship with a therapist who helps her reconstruct meaning . . . A meditation on how one learns to live alongside absence.”