$14.49
“Logen Cure’s Still draws inspiration from Eros, whom she keenly argues is never eclipsed by the routines of our days. The dynamic energy in these poems derives from an ongoing battle—a uniquely human battle—between the rational and the feral. I’m grateful to Cure for her stark honesty and wit; for poems reminding us that our hearts are nutritious and must be eaten raw.”
— David Roderick, author of The Americans
“With a voice that’s intimately colloquial and unpretentiously aphoristic, the poems in Still by Logen Cure ask us what it takes to be at home in our bones and brains, in our bedrooms and mirrors. In the poem ‘Sixth Street,’ which opens the collection, after puking in a bar bathroom, the speaker comes to the revelation that ‘all suffering / can be bodily,’ locating loneliness and past emotional trauma within the physical body. Cure sings the human animal voracious and tries to figure out what to feed it. This collection wets its whistle on a whiskey neat but ultimately finds satiation in love and companionship.”
–Stevie Edwards, author of Humanly
STILL selected Best Book by a Texas Author for 2015 by Fort Worth Weekly:
http://www.fwweekly.com/2015/09/28/culture-3/3/
Dirty Chai interview with the author about STILL:
http://dirtychaimag.com/issue-seven/
Speaking of Marvels joint interview with fellow FLP author JeFF Stumpo:
https://chapbookinterviews.wordpress.com/2015/06/24/jeff–stumpo-and-logen-cure/
The Poetry Question review for STILL:
http://thepoetryquestion.com/2015/07/13/review-stil-logen-cure-finishing-line-press/
The Poetry Question reviews STILL:
“And when they ask me/ what happened to you, I will tell them/ without hesitation that one day/ your heart just stopped.”
–from “Condolences”
My old poetry professor, Doyle Wesley Walls, used to get on my case for using what he called “dollar words”, or rather, words that made people have to grab a dictionary. He would say, “Chris, nickel and dime ’em.” It’s true. If you want to reach the everyperson audience than you have to be able to write like the everyperson. And it’s not always easy. Logen Cure’s Still, from Finishing Line Press, is playful in its simple everyperson honesty.
“He crashed at our house that night, and the next morning/ my girlfriend left for work, still tripping./ I found him sprawled on the living room floor,/ one arm slung over his eyes./Allen, I said, Hey, Allen,/until he lifted his arm to squint up at me./ You can come get in bed with me if you want.”
— from “Allen”
I read a lot of poetry, and sometimes I get caught up in people trying to metaphor their way out of a poem, or a subject matter – and yes, I used “metaphor” as a verb. Logen Cure doesn’t even head in that direction. These pieces are real world conversations that give an almost intimate, yet arms length look into life’s most honest relationships.
“To see the sky in North Carolina,/ you have to look up./ What comes for you here/ just comes.”
–from “Residence or Refuge”
http://thepoetryquestion.com/2015/07/13/review-stil-loge-
n-cure-finishing-line-press/
Rating: ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]
Still
by Logen Cure
paper, $14.49
Logen Cure is a poet and teacher. She is the author of two other chapbooks: Letters to Petrarch (Unicorn Press 2015) and In Keeping (Unicorn Press 2008). Her work also appears in Word Riot, Radar Poetry, IndieFeed: Performance Poetry, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She lives in Texas with her wife. Learn more at www.logencure.com.
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