The Short List of Certainties
Winner of the Jacopone da Todi Poetry Book Prize, "The Short List of Certainties" explores the many ways that we are blind to the depths of our fears and to the heights of our noblest selves. Experimental when necessary, but classic in design, Lois Roma-Deeley has woven together a narrative structure that traces the “hero’s journey” while reaching into and beyond the social issues of our time. Roma-Deeley’s writing entices the reader to join two strong-willed and modern, yet vulnerable, feminist spirits on this venture. The twin daughters of Hope — anger and courage — materialize and dematerialize throughout time, physical space, and social boundaries to liberate the world while destroying classic mandates. The twins struggle within themselves, argue with each other, and rage at the world as they fight against work-a-day violence, social injustices, and even Hope itself. "The Short List of Certainties" offers no easy answers for the brokenness found within ourselves and our world, but there’s no turning back now. The blind "what-if" awaits.
Bio
At Arizona State University, Lois Roma-Deeley earned a Bachelor of Arts in journalism in 1984 and an Master of Fine Arts in creative writing in 1988. "The Short List of Certainties" is her fourth collection of poems. Previous full-length poetry collections are: "Rules of Hunger," "northSight," and "High Notes" — a Patterson Poetry Prize finalist.
Praise for this book
It's been a long time since a collection has so affected me. Whether she is writing of our twisted relational lives or of her own seemingly innate sense that something's wrong, Roma-Deeley writes with that curious blend of authority and self-doubt that marks our best poets. Ultimately, and reassuringly, she finds the affirmation that sustains her through it all; as her title poem urges, 'having courage, let us write a word or phrase on the short list of certainties something that sounds very much like praise.' Which is just what she does in this tour de force.
Sydney Lea Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, and former Vermont Poet Laureate
