Sometimes I Forget How to Be a Person - by Peter Grandbois (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In Sometimes I Forget How to Be a Person, Peter Grandbois explores how the natural world shapes our understanding of self, grief, faith, and belonging.

Taking inspiration from Ted Hughes's Crow, the collection alternates intimate lyric poems with a sequence voiced by a darkly comic trickster who questions God, envies bees, and searches for meaning in an absurd and wounded world. "I wake with waiting/ wanting what tree I am/ to bird and leave."

Filled with birds, trees, insects, weather, and moments of startling beauty, these poems blur the boundaries between human and animal, body and landscape, asking what it means to remain open, connected, and fully alive.

About the Author

Peter Grandbois is the author of sixteen previous books, including, most recently the poetry collection Story of a Pilgrim (Tiger Bark Press, 2026). His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in nearly two-hundred different journals. His plays have been nominated for several New York Innovative Theatre Awards and have been performed in St. Louis, Columbus, Los Angeles, and New York. He is poetry editor at Boulevard magazine and teaches at Denison University in Ohio, where he also coaches the fencing team. You can find him at www.petergrandbois.com