Of Pimone Triplett's The Price of Light, David St. John, judge for the Levis Poetry Prize, writes “[this is] a collection of astonishing scope and power. Her poems are linguistically electric and each of her delicate meditations reflects an enviable intellectual ease. This is a volume of poetry that can travel from Beato Angelico to Robert Schumann with passion and vision, from Bangkok to rural America with a truly natural eloquence. Lyrically elegant and constantly inventive, Double Life is an amazing blend of the traditional and the radical in present day American poetry. Deeply intimate and yet historically informed, these poems weave a complicated multicultural tapestry that speaks not only for this poet, but for all of us.”

Click here for TABLE OF CONTENTS

From the Book:

Forgive me. Last night I lay awake trying
to learn the language of your breath. At times,
I'd swear I heard your wind's idiom, a whiff's
grammar and grace, the figure eight only
your bod can stincil in air. The clock boxed
off 2:00, then 3:00. I envied oxygen's
blocks, their making motion inmost into you,
knew never was enough made of one wind
warmed in that declension which is yours, twinned,
flushed luck of lung sacs. I wish I could stop
listening for the secret which is wholly
yours. Or ever forget to praise that air's
invisible essa, this love for how a breeze,
once held, can hold you, and still be free.
-from "Because I wouldn't ever kill you"

Four Way Books Levis Poetry Prize, selected by David St. John.

Thai-American poet PIMONE TRIPLETT is a member of the graduate faculty at The University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon.

---

---