Locally lauded poet Amy Turn Sharp has amassed quite a collection of poems and has decided this is the year to pull together a selection for a book. She has selected forty poems for her new book, Hold Me Like Ohio.
“I write a poem nearly every day,” says Sharp. “In 2012 I did a 365 project and I have realized that I have so many poems! I have a lot of amazing blog readers and they urged me to put a collection together.”
Sharp publishes her poems on her blog, My Name is Amy Turn Sharp. Hold Me Like Ohio is her first book.
“I have a lot of themes in my work and I just decided to work on the relationship/Ohio one first,” she says. “Ohio is stuck in me like a feather. I belong here no matter how long I am ever away.”
Hold Me Like Ohio was letterpressed by Igloo Letterpress in two colors on 140# cover stock and hand bound with a waxed linen thread, resulting in a beautiful book to house Sharp’s first collection. Friend Shannon Lieberman designed the cover.
“She encouraged me to being my personality out a bit and I love it,” says Sharp.
the wonder years
I don’t dream of you anymore
hardly ever
you are dead for sure
stripped from any part of my life
I don’t have photographs
letters
paper ephemera scrappy bits
evidence that you used to take air into your living lungs
that you were glossy and kind and pulsating
proof you waved your hand to me
like a white flag
I don’t dream of you
I just see you occasionally
in the broad shoulders of boys
in crowds at shopping malls
at the park with my children
leaning against the swing set
smiling into the sun
pushing your hand through
the long hair of teenage dreams
-amy turn sharp
—-
someday
I want to read David Foster Wallace with you. We’ll pause a lot. Eat madeleines. Dunk them in tea. The pages of the book splattered brown with drips. Push the curtains closed. Read again. You tell me about the city where you lost your truth. I say I’m sorry. The air slips from the room. A slip falls to the floor and breaks like glass. We talk about the novel and how hard it is to read. So complex. I blush. All your teeth show. We agree. The book sits between us. We take turns reading and our voices carry across the house. Our sounds fill the silence.
-amy turn sharp
“There are lots more to come,” says Sharp.
Photo courtesy Amy Turn Sharp.
Catch Amy Turn Sharp at the next Word Church poetry reading night at Brothers Drake. Started in October of 2013, Word Church brings together local poets and invites them to share their poetry with the community. Word Church occurs every month at Brothers Drake. The next event is Tuesday, February 25 and begins at 7:30pm. Copies of Hold Me Like Ohio will be available for $20.