The Distance Formula by Jacqueline Young

“Jacqueline Young follows the rhythm of her attention with a gentle doggedness, inviting the reader into poems that feel somehow both meticulous and roomy. Her poems are so lucid, so smart, so coiled, so surprising, so quietly probing, I feel the utmost of gratitude for them.”

—Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts

“What is The Distance Formula? “Each body has/ its own/ unique/ rhythm// I’d rather/ you/ not listen/ to mine” is what the title poem tell us, knowing that we are listening, knowing we will be listening even more closely now. Listening to what? To arrival and vanishment. To what is there and to what is not there. To these beautiful poems of presence and absence, attention and passage.”

—Anthony McCann, Thing Music