In the spirit of the Sock Monkey tradition, Nicole teamed up with the artist Re Jin Lee whose four delicately stark drawings depict a sapling braving the four seasons. The final effect accomplishes the goal that SMP set at its conception: the images, without fail, amplify the voice of the poems; the poems, in concert with the images, masterfully accent the utterance of the drawings they accompany. A confluence of the visual and the word brings forth a creation which courageously conveys what Nicole has been revealing about us, her listeners, to date.
Lesson Three
The name of this technique,
he said,
is afternoon.
Then pressed his mouth
to her collarbone,
pressed his mouth
‘til evening
broke the window.
We are honored to house this book of poetry. Nicole, with the same poise she has used to enthuse audiences for years, has gathered an awe-inspiring collection of poems. In February, after the turn of the year, SUPERLOOP will be launched at NYC’s Poets House. Nicole will be touring SUPERLOOP on the East Coast, and later in the Midwest during the Spring of 2014.
“Precise, graceful, and generous, the poems in SuperLoop, seem to be born out of a deep, careful attention and a profound compassion. Sometimes the quiet observer, sometimes the kid in the center of the messed-up carnival, these poems are the fireflies you’ve missed all winter, the longed-for return of the bees. Unaffected and inherently hopeful, Callihan’s work is as merciful as it is moving.”
–Ada Limón
(Lucky Wreck, This Big Fake World, and Sharks in the Rivers)
“These poems stare up at you—the poem’s creature—and say, I know you. I know you have this sorrow; it is there. These poems point to that sorrow, but also say: I know where you have locked away your jubilee. I’m thankful that these poems have been lived. I remember these poems. Some poets roll along and the inertial allegory that becomes unstuck from their hair falls like an apt shadow along their readers: these poems come from a home I knew, a field I ran, a quiet neon place where we all spun. We are lucky to have a ticket to them.”
–Terence Degnan
(The Small Plot Beside the Ventriloquist’s Grave,
Sock Monkey Press, 2012)
“These poems dig deep into the ragged nature of what it means to be alive, unveiling in bristling clarity, the cracks, quirks, “thorny edges,” and great beauty of being. A master in the language of blush and bruise, Nicole Callihan tells stories that rub the mind like a fever in a cool wind.”
–Dawn Lundy Martin
(A Gathering of Matter /
A Matter of Gathering and Discipline)
Nicole’s writing “is so unpretentious and alive and interesting—I especially admire its quick vulnerabilities.”
–Jean Valentine
(2004 National Book Award Winner,
Author of eleven volumes of poetry)