A Thirst That's Partly Mine

by Liz Ahl, Margo Stever (Editor), Suzanne Cleary (Editor)

Poetry. A THIRST THAT'S PARTLY MINE explores the ways humans perceive and interact with a natural world that can seem both intimately connected to our concerns and yet profoundly unknowable. "In a difficult world, we readers of Liz Ahl's poems might wonder, with her unearthed spring toad, '...what any of us are supposed to do about any of it.' Perhaps these vivid and compassionate poems have the answer as they sweep human language over the endurance and beauty of what's creaturely here. Where species intersect, the result on the page is pure art. Brava, Liz Ahl, poet, observer, participant!" Hilda Raz."

Genres: Poetry

32 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 2008

About the author

Liz Ahl is a poet and teacher who lives in New Hampshire. Her most recent poetry collection, Beating the Bounds, was published in 2017 by Hobblebush Books. Her poems have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Measure, Prairie Schooner, Sinister Wisdom, Lavender Review, and North American Review, among other journals. Her work has also been included in several anthologies, including Show Us Your Papers (Main Street Rag, 2020), Nasty Women Poets (Lost Horse Press, 2017), and This Assignment Is So Gay (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013), among others. Her first chapbook, A Thirst That’s Partly Mine, won the 2008 Slapering Hol chapbook contest. She has been awarded residencies at Jentel, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, the Playa Artist Residency Program, and the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow.

Reviews

[Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems about a person's relationships to animals build up to great final lines. A sample:

In "Bully," about crows harassing an eagle, she writes: "I'm the stupid human... / ...framing a world with ideas about injustice" and it ends: "We all know whose beach this really is."

In "Birdbath," whence the title line of the book, she notes her superfluity to the animals' lives: "I am nothing more / than luck to them".

In "Famous Trainer Drowned by Killer Whale," she asks: "When does delight turn / to horror? When do we realize the water / has gone red? When do we stop clapping?"

These poems are about trying to figure out one's position in the world. Worth reading.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It takes a special poet to cause me to read cover to cover on a Sunday morning before rising. Liz Ahl is such a poet.