Winner of the 2016 Ghost Proposal Chapbook Contest. Edition of 100. Printed + assembled by Perfectly Acceptable in Chicago, IL. Cover design by Leslie Weibeler. Sold out.

Excerpt

Could the concentrated undulate of air lining an airliner’s engine replace the force of air required of woodwinds? Or does any instrument belie a lung unhinged? Maybe we’re asking the wrong questions. Maybe the question is always of another else, other: like, am I more liable to inflate a musical tool with air or consciousness, idle wind or the precise measure of thought? In both situations, there remains a love of remains, of a vital need for holes. To comb, to cough into acoustics. This is how a word tastes like awe when on the reed, the precipice, the semblance. How a weather-vane gets twisted into a treble clef.

About the Author

Jake Syersak is a poet, translator, and editor currently living in Seattle, WA. He is the author of the poetry collections Yield Architecture (Burnside Review Books, 2018) and Mantic Compost (Trembling Pillow Press, 2022), as well as several chapbooks. He received a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Washington, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona, and a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Georgia. His poetry and translations have appeared in such journals as Action, Asymptote, Black Warrior Review, Conjunctions, Colorado Review, Omniverse, and Volt, among others. A current editor of the micropress Radioactive Cloud, he ran the long-running poetry journal Cloud Rodeo, co-curated the Yumfactory Reading Series, and has contributed to the editorial teams at Sonora Review, Diagram, and Letter Machine Editions. He is also the recipient of a 2021 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant and is the author of several works in translation, including the hybrid novel Agadir (Diálogos Press, 2020) by Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine, co-translated with Pierre Joris.