Strange Hymn

＂Strange Hymn by Carlene Kucharczyk is a meticulously crafted lyrical journey exploring morality and humanity. The poems here grapple with understanding physical loss. They also engage with the more abstract slipping away of memory and time. Kucharczyk’s insightful poems blur the lines between history and myth, love and grief, song and silence, often caught between lamenting the passage of time and rejoicing in small beauties. Each moment reflects on our ephemeral lives from musings on art and nature to reflections on the self. As readers traverse this collection, they learn how the body sings, the many iterations of Mary, what sirens truly think of Odysseus, how a Morning Glory unfurls, and lessons in orthodontics, but most importantly, how to live with absence. Kucharczyk is a master of manipulating time and space through her dynamic use of form, creating a narrative that begs, ’After I’m gone, don’t bury my body- / Burn it, and turn it into song’＂--

CARLENE KUCHARCZYK’s writing has appeared in literary journals such as Poetry Northwest, Mid-American Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Green Mountains Review, and Conduit, and has received a Pushcart nomination.