What Happens When We Leave

The amazing chapbook from J. Todd Hawkins that won the Fort Worth Poetry Society's 2018 William D. Barney Memorial Chapbook Contest! Twenty-five exceptional poems from one of the finest poets in Texas. Here's what some of his fellow poets had to say about this work: "Todd Hawkins takes us on a journey of departures. Beginning with the birth of the universe and closing with the end of a growing season, these poems move from Texas to Tokyo, Lima to a lake in summer, and museums to an ancient tomb. Hawkins shows us how leaving and its intrinsic epiphanies are essential parts of travel, both physical and metaphysical. An insightful tour guide, Hawkins writes poems full of details that "insist we remember," even as he gracefully escorts us to our next destination."-Anne McCrady, author of Letting Myself In and Along Greathouse Road"Few experiences in contemporary poetry match the thrill of encountering J. Todd Hawkins' precise and haunting verse. What Happens When We Leave is a dark tour of poetic forms that takes us from Tokyo to Texas, from extinction to eternal love, from classic painters to country crooners. This is an inspiring collection from a poet of powerful craft, deep sentiment and startling range."-Elle Aviv Newton, coeditor and cofounder of Poets Reading the News"Shakespeare correctly spoke of "a local habitation and a name." Although my allegiance is still split between the universal and one's own backyard, Todd Hawkins's poems pull me like a magnet toward the latter. Moreover, his transcription of country/pop songs for his own purposes as a poet becomes a kind of wonderful lyrical montage. Why not?! Since the resulting poems still hold up so well. But I am most taken by his work's limpidity whose literary history is shown by the early Chinese poets Tu Fu and Li Po as well as by the "pure, clear word" of James Wright. "Carry on," Hawkins ends one poem. And he does so himself quite convincingly."- Ken Fontenot, winner of the Texas Institute of Letters Best Book of Poetry Award for In a Kingdom of Birds

• | Author: J. Todd Hawkins
• | Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• | Publication Date: Oct 27, 2018
• | Number of Pages: 46 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1727398645
• | ISBN-13: 9781727398649