and God says: this is good enough, good enough
When compared to war—

— from “The Light Knows All the Hiding Places”

We are given life, and then sometimes unable to give it to others. We tease ourselves. We believe that it will be okay, because if we don’t believe, what was the purpose? We write and write and write in hope that someone will hear what we are actually saying, even if it’s buried in subtext.

Elisabeth Horan’s Odd List Odd House screams that love isn’t always love and according to Merriam-Webster’s there are more than 20 definitions of “trap,” and the first has to do with keeping animals in cages. Because sometimes we are the keeper, and sometimes the cage. Because we have the ability to gain control. Because we are

This is Emily Dickinson in a new body with the same feelings. It’s the slant-rhyme hymnals with a push-away-from-God-and-man chorus you can’t keep out of your head. These are hymns for the hopeless who long to be significant. Until they are “torn into something new.” Because:

I feel the need to pray. But not
For God to come to my aide –

But that a winter bird might trill his
Song; that an awkward goose

Might remember his way home.

from “I Write You After Church One Day”

Purchase your copy of Odd List Odd House from Twist in Time Press.

Dickinson Elisabeth Horan God hymns poetry Poetry Question