paper • 100 pages • 15.95
ISBN-13: 978-1-935536-85-7
Event Boundaries considers ways our relationships and growth as individuals are interdependent, whether it’s possible to consider any relationship (including with ourselves) independent of the culture and environment it exists in; whether we create our culture and environment in part through the way we enact our relationships, to what degree reality is objective or a matter of perception, and how we come to terms with our and others’ mortality.
“Sigh,” from Event Boundaries:
April snow bends
each lilac branch,
heavy and wet
as your body on mine
after love-making,
but less warm—
in truth, a better simile
for loss than love,
“…Ossmann’s idiomatic mastery bespeaks ‘the opportunity to perfect/the perfect clamor.’ This is a book that climaxes in a Quietude dearly urgent now.”—Donald Revell
“…This is a work of maturity and severity, a book that refuses to look away. Event Boundaries is, despite or because of its starkness, a pleasure to read, and, I would add, it is a necessary read.”—Lynn Emanuel
“…Her understated wit continues to remind us that despair can be a failure of the imagination. What quick bright work this is…”—Cynthia Huntington
“Even ‘Mayhem’s Meditation’ reminds readers that they are powerless against ‘those forces,’ but they might as well get on board and enjoy the ride: ‘but as far as the mayhem itself goes,/ you’re alone with whatever your god/ … gave you.’ VERDICT Thoughtful poetry readers should investigate.”—Library Journal
“…Ossmann brings a deft touch of word choice and poetic structure that moves those human events from the level of the commonplace to the extraordinary.”—Bennington Banner Read the full review here.