Accidental Devotions - by Kelli Russell Agodon (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Witty, humorous, and oh so tender, Accidental Devotions reminds us that in the end, life is a brief devotion of moments--beautiful, accidental, and always--gone too soon.

Kelli Russell Agodon's latest collection, Accidental Devotions, seeks to find meaning in a world lit by screens and haunted by ghosts--both real and digital. Blending humor with vulnerability, these poems embrace the beautiful chaos of our relationships, of aging and being human. Here, explorations of desire, technology, and spirituality ring out like birdsong through a chapel. Sharp and playful, Accidental Devotions is for the quiet rebels and devoted readers--for those who carry ashes to the beach, ask Alexa for guidance, keep Emily Dickinson's book on the nightstand, or fall in love mid-sentence. With queer tenderness, and an ongoing devotion to desire, these poems make room for grief and joy, pleasure and struggle. The result: a dazzling, defiant field guide to staying human.

Review Quotes

Praise for Accidental Devotions

"Her poems brim with her enthusiasm for life, but this is tempered by her keen feeling for the evanescence of things, the fleetingness of love and living, and the accompanying melancholy that often entails."--Charles Rammelkamp, North of Oxford

"An incandescent and tender exploration of what it means to be human in the confusion of contemporary life"--Maria Surrichio, Adroit Journal

"Kelli Russell Agodon's poetry achieves a mystical balance between timelessness and cutting-edge topicality. In her new collection, Accidental Devotions, she searches for love and spirituality in a world colonized by technology. She can be witty even at the point of tears . . . ."--Ron Charles

"Accidental Devotions is a book of petalflamed seeking, splendored by the sinew and the speculation of connection. These poems insist on singing the many paths for closing a distance. Sometimes the way is lit by chance, sometimes by humor, and sometimes by deep grief, but always Agodon tracks the wisdom of knowing ourselves even one note closer to some other being navigating this bright but tumultuous living, already fading."--Geffrey Davis

"What vitality in these poems that are full of wild and wonderful metaphors and deft, surprising leaps. There are aching love poems and poems that speak to the ache of living: 'Tonight, ache has a name/and it's called existence.' There are poems that mourn for the desecration of the earth: 'Tonight, I'm wearing sorrow like a corset/you keep trying to unhook.' And there are witty observations about life and poetry: 'When in doubt--add plums to your poem, / never break a line on a bird's name.' I have a soft spot for poems that press pain up against humor and these poems are brilliant at that. Accidental Devotions is serious and delicious. Just what we need in these challenging times."--Ellen Bass

"To say that Accidental Devotions is passionate would be to say the truth--but what does that mean? Poems herein aren't afraid to take a public bus, like surrealist angels. In this America of ours, where loneliness is a statistical fact, a poem isn't shy to admit: 'I am wearing sorrow like a corset / you keep trying to unhook.' If the word 'passionate' is to be used to describe this book, one must add that such passion carries 'grief in a paper bag / with tiny handles.' These blessed tools of craft used here--tone and image--deliver us into the many lives of the heart, showing how we love, and why, even if 'ache has a name /and it's called existence.' And, despite it all, an older couple, on the dance floor, keeps dancing 'unaware / the music has ended--how they sway' into each other, letting the quiet lead. This is a brave book, one that shows us there is nothing accidental about Kelli Russell Agodon's devotions--but as we turn the pages, our own devotions might, perhaps, deepen. Bravo."--Ilya Kaminsky

"Reading the poems in Accidental Devotions is a form of flight. Agodon's mind and heart move quick, and these poems are full of verve, humor, passion, and a deep and abiding joy. Each one is a tour de force of falling apart and falling back in love with our gorgeous and complicated world. This book is simultaneously a votive on the of altar of the ordinary and also kissing Dickinson and Rilke in a cemetery filled with feathers. I am a devotee of each of these erotic, botanical, angelic lines, each one pressed and saved like any beauty you wish to hold forever. Read these poems. Let everything in."--Traci Brimhall

Praise for Dialogues with Rising Tides

"The speakers of these poems look clear-eyed at the world as it is, not as we wish it were. They unpack their anxieties about the world--anxieties personal, political, and ecological--and meet these concerns with resolve, even grace. In Dialogues with Rising Tides, Agodon reassures us, poem after poem, that all is not lost. I think we all need this reminder as we leave this year and enter a new one."--Maggie Smith

"Seattle-area poet Agodon's finely crafted poems gleam like prisms, so clear is her language. . . . The everyday grace with which we attempt to live while tumbling through our days finds expression in this sinewy collection which seems to catch us before we fall, assuring us that it's going to be okay."--Booklist

"In her piercing fourth collection, Agodon explores intertwined anxieties--a family history of mental illness, looming environmental collapse, the inadequacies of love--with care and understated humor. . . Despite the tragedies at the center of this book, Agodon captures the universality of dark emotions and offers a collection full of hope."--Publishers Weekly

"We know it is treacherous out there, and we know we could benefit from some sort of guide. In this book, Kelli Russell Agodon throws her light around the roiling waters. These poems are keenly attentive, and witty, and wise. They don't shy away from revealing the dangers this ship we're in is heading toward, but they're also not afraid to tell us that they love us. They've been constructed to help us. If you let them, they might save you today."--Camille T. Dungy, Orion Magazine

"This is the book I need right here, right now, as the fires burn and the tides rise."--Diane Seuss

About the Author

Kelli Russell Agodon is a poet, writer, editor, book designer, and co-founder of Two Sylvias Press. Her latest book, Dialogues with Rising Tides, was a Finalist in the Washington State Book Awards and shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize in Poetry. She is also an author of the bestselling The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice, which she co-authored with Martha Silano. She was the winner of ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award in poetry, and her work has appeared in The Atlantic, New England Review, and O, The Oprah Magazine. She is a co-director of Poets on the Coast, a writing retreat for women. Kelli is also an avid paddleboarder, mountain biker, and hiker who has a fondness for desserts, typewriters, and fedoras. She lives in a sleepy seaside town a ferry ride away from Seattle and teaches at Pacific Lutheran University's low-res MFA program.