Description

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In Odes to the Ordinary, Emily Benson-Scott employs a poetic concept dating back to ancient Greece to valorize the commonplace. Nothing escapes her wondrous gaze, as the poet celebrates everyday objects as diverse as an elevated subway in Queens to a Quaking Aspen in Vermont. Brimming with sensual language and densely layered imagery, these poems remind us to have gratitude for the beauty that infuses even the most seemingly insignificant objects or unpleasant circumstances — from bad breakups to bad weather. Attention also becomes a vehicle towards greater empathy when the poet turns her gaze towards a weary carriage horse in Central Park or a bucket of crabs awaiting their demise. This debut collection will awaken a sense of wonder, helping to ground us in the present moment and to find the miraculous in the mundane.

About the Author

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Emily Benson-Scott's work has appeared in Atlanta Review, Cold Mountain Review, Colorado Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Nimrod International Journal, and Southern Poetry Review, among other journals. Her travel writing has appeared in The London Daily Telegraph, Time Out New York, Delta Sky, Postcards, Venice, and Ultratravel. She holds a BA in international relations from Cornell University, and an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College. Formerly an adjunct professor with CUNY, Emily and her husband have spent the last decade working remotely from locations around the world, ranging from the Arctic Circle of Norway to the stiletto heel of Italy. More at www.emilybensonscott.com

Praise For…

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“Perhaps the deepest root in all of poetry isn’t elegy’s instinct to mourn, nor eros’s urge to sing, but something simpler than either, an innate instinct to praise the world and all that’s in it. So Caedmon begins his hymn, ‘Now I praise,’ and so Emily Benson-Scott offers us her Odes to the Ordinary. It takes a poet of both genuine gentleness and real humility to understand that our truest wonders hardly seem like wonders at all. So it is these poems give us back as gifts what we’d easily otherwise take for granted." —Dan Beachy-Quick, poet, essayist, and translator, author of a translation from Ancient Greek, Stone-Garland—Six Poets from the Greek Lyric Tradition

“It takes a poet of both genuine gentleness and real humility to understand that our truest wonders hardly seem like wonders at all. These poems give us back as gifts what we’d easily otherwise take for granted—an egret in central park, a rainy wedding remembered not with regret but gratitude . . . . the daily graces we overlook when we seek epiphany instead of simple hours." —Dan Beachy-Quick, author of a translation from Ancient Greek, Stone-Garland—Six Poets from the Greek Lyric Tradition and Arrows.

“Emily Benson-Scott’s poems are lush displays of language, joy, and hope that shimmer and sear with a master’s stroke. Of course, you will rediscover Keats in new and exciting ways on these pages, but there is also a nod to what Plath might have done in the out years. These poems are fiercely ambitious and sleek with urgency. An important book for our time, this collection provides a ready salve to heal a post-pandemic world.” —Dean Smith, author of Baltimore Sons and Director of Duke University Press.

“In Odes to the Ordinary there are surprise and beautiful language . . . . Her poems welcome you, but you need to watch your step . . . . In her first lines—she poses a question, makes a statement, draws you in from the start; you’ll keep reading and turning the page for another well-observed line that will stay with you whispering or burning." —Robert Lipton, former Poet Laureate of Richmond California, social activist, and author of A Complex Bravery.

"A collection of free-verse poetry that aims to locate the hearts of everyday things. . . . In many poems, the speaker interacts with her subject, allowing herself to be stirred by its inherent nature. The fleeting moments between the cessation of a storm and stillness are a reminder to appreciate clarity in the chaos of life . . . The poems effectively render ostensibly banal things worthy of close examination, and they find beauty and complexity in objects and experiences usually taken for granted. . . . A perceptive set of poems that find the extraordinary in the ordinary."—Kirkus Reviews

"Odes to the Ordinary: Poems is a tribute to everyday life and the wonder of ordinary living. It cultivates an atmosphere of appreciation and observation that reveals both the truths in ordinary wonder and the fallacies that lie in expectations of extraordinary circumstances." —Midwest Book Review