I'm Glad We Did This: A Poetry Chapbook

by Kelli Lage

Overview

"I'm Glad We Did This" paints a picture of friendship that showcases the happiness found in past and present relationships. "I'm Glad We Did This" is a poetry chapbook by Kelli Lage that celebrates the beauty of everyday life, nature, and memories. It scattered memories of simple and delicate joys throughout this chapbook. Though nostalgia is present throughout this book, the author opens it up for readers to be present, remembering those who have made us who we are.

Lage pulls from elements of her rural hometown that highlight the closeness of the relationships described in this book. With just a river dam near her, she takes in nature as much as the faces of those around her, and often intertwines the two. In I'm Glad, We Did This, readers will find a portrait of friendship that showcases the joy of past and present connections. Those who enjoy the small and beautiful moments of life, love nature, and are moved by sunlight, dew, and rivers will find this book appealing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781962374033
Publisher:	Prolific Pulse Press LLC
Publication date:	10/23/2023
Pages:	42
Sales rank:	641,303
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.10(d)

About the Author

Kelli Lage is a poetry reader for Bracken Magazine and Best of the Net nominated poet. Lage's work has appeared in Stanchion Zine, Maudlin House, The Lumiere Review, Welter Journal, and elsewhere. Her haiku was displayed in an online gallery by Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum. Website: www.KelliLage.com

Editorial Reviews

Andrew Brown: "The quiet of this small town makes my voice crack," writes Kelli Lage, expressing in a single line the scope of this remarkable collection of poems. By way of wistful memories, Lage celebrates deep bonds, in particular the friendships formed in childhood and adolescence, sustained over time, and bound inextricably to the places where those relationships first formed. In that way, "I'm Glad We Did This" is also a tenderhearted homage to rural America. With the Midwest as milieu, Lage marks the cyclical passage of time and the gradual drift from innocence to experience. But throughout these poems, at least one connection to childhood remains - the inclination to trust one's imagination. When Lage writes, "I found daydreams could live in the same place as scraped knees and dried tears," the poet offers a credo, as well as an invitation to appreciate the fluid boundaries between art and truth, memory and myth.

In these poems, the lines blur and become something more. In one scene, Lage describes swimming where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico in a way that is fabulist, almost surreal, when she writes "Clasping hands, / we jumped into velvet covers and became saltwater." And this is her gift, a sensibility that tackles expansive themes in terms both personal and archetypal. Every glance backward begins as remembrance, leads to reflection and ends in a resolution - the commitment to elevate what is ordinary into art. Thus, when Lage writes, "I'll try to make my remaining years sound like a folk song," she leaves us with a promise already fulfilled.

Shonette N. Reed: Kelli Lage's "I'm So Glad We Did This" has a way of transporting the reader to moments where they can confidently say "That's me!" as she vulnerably connects the reader to scenes from her life. Lage's illustrative way of writing is enough to make the reader smile through her words as they are comforted by nostalgia and hope to the very end.

From the Publisher