One Person Holds So Much Silence - by David Greenspan (Paperback)

About the Book

The bizarre and intimate poems in David Greenspan's One Person Holds So Much Silence represent one of the most stunning appeal to the mysteries and anxieties of the human body in poetics today.

Book Synopsis

David Greenspan's One Person Holds So Much Silence explores the intersection of physical and emotional traumas through surprising and jaw-dropping language.

Simultaneously lush and bizarre, the poems in One Person Holds So Much Silence culminate in a striking deep-dive into the pain and experiences of existing within a body.

From self-harm to suicidal ideation, Greenspan tackles these harrowing topics through writing brimming with original language and wrought empathy.

These challenging, lyrical poems ask readers to investigate their own relationship with grief and its effects on the body.

Readers looking for stunning language and dense, rewarding poetry will find a new favorite poet in David Greenspan.

This collection also features a bespoke interview with the writer at then end of the book, delving deeper into the craft, influences, and life behind their work.

Review Quotes

"In the end what is a blurb but a set of words trying to convince you to read a different set of words. You should do that right now, open this book and read those other words inside this book which are better words than these words. Look anywhere inside & spy for yourself. The table of contents gives you: Where are the worms in my mouth brother in your mouth and Skinny Fisted Sons and A Poem to Pass the Time. Or open any poem by David Greenspan to dare careen down an unsure tunnel, lulled and stricken by sudden gashes of light & by the yelps of an unfortunate fellow traveler, sleepy, riveted, and frightened all at once. 'call it a vulgar display / of friendship a song of sorts / chanted with lipstick / in our blood ... & anxiety an idea about / the fine hewed quality of mistakes" Open it now. You'll be grateful for the starling companions & shocked by the strange reflection in the passing glass.'"

- Christopher Janke, author of The Thing Itself

"Flush with grief, insistent in its longing, at times flashing with anger, the language of David Greenspan's poems-so exact, so exacting-propels the reader into all the open astonishment that the Ordinary affords us. What more could we ask of poetry than that?"

- Richard Deming, Director of Creative Writing at Yale University

"David Greenspan's innovative poetry has us touching our jaw, knee, and elbow, a sensuous unzipping not of clothes but flesh. 'I was a person silicate & dirt / detritus of human / waiting for the right weather'. Here is the poetry aimed at our thoughts placed into every muscle and how we manage the weight of being human as we bend, unbend, alive with these brilliant poems! I am grateful for this book!"

- CA Conrad, author of AMANDA PARADISE: Resurrect Extinct Vibration

"In this visceral and powerful debut, David Greenspan exposes a world within the world we inhabit, one full of histories often left unspoken. But this is not a book simply about despair or grief; instead, Greenspan masterfully turns elegy into ode, a story of one still standing after a storm of 'inaccurate weather.' One Person Holds So Much Silence asks what it means to inhabit a body and what it means to live a life that unfolds in unexpected ways. It's a stunning collection that continues to open through each subsequent reading, a collection that I think about as I make my way through a fractured world that begins to make more sense because of these impressive and carefully wrought poems."

- Adam Clay, author of To Make Room for the Sea

"One Person Holds So Much Silence proves that despite our disconnection, the body is no remote thing. Greenspan's visceral and poignant poetry confronts us with the notion that in life as in death 'we may have no answers.' And yet, we can not look away from these poems that deeply consider all the questions carried by our bodies."

- Gloria Muñoz, author of Danzirly

"The poems in this raw collection edge their way around the human body, taking note of the strange items that find their ways in: drugs, flies, milk, honeyed tobacco, etc.-these are prayers for the relative body and object. The speaker is concerned with the eccentricity of nuanced somatic desire. Here is a speaker 'shaped from ground / fondled to birth / without blood or mother' who asks questions and answers them without finality, but with resolve, sweeping us into the bewilderment of what actually constitutes a living form."

- Bianca Stone, author of The Möbius Strip Club of Grief