Eggphrasis: The Sky Is Falling (Paperback or Softback)

A deeply moving, unexpected exploration of love, grief, and survival. What begins in a backyard with six chickens evolves into a profound meditation on life and mortality. From the whimsicality of a hen who turns into a rooster to the sharp heartbreak of a chicken-killing school, Hess captures the surprising depth of loving and mourning these creatures. These tender avian bonds build an inevitable, powerful bridge to a series of devastatingly beautiful poems about her sister’s illness. Who knew chickens could take us so deep?

—Jean Zorn, Publisher, Persimmon Tree

In Ronnie Hess’s Eggphrasis: The Sky Is Falling, the speaker stands at the uncertain, half-lit edge of mourning, calling home her hens. “She’s gone and who’s to ask what these / late summer days are like for her,” she questions. Here, at the onset, the act of asking becomes an active form of witness to the myriad indices of loss that punctuate a life. The poems unfurl along the grief-thick path of their bewilderment, lighting the places where a person’s hope might otherwise be swallowed, beckoning them to listen. This is Midwest wisdom music at its finest and most attentive.

—Nicholas Gulig, Wisconsin Poet Laureate (2023–2025) and Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Don’t be surprised, as you read these lovely new poems by Ronnie Hess, that you begin to feel like a chicken. While there is a human involved in these poems, it’s the chickens you root for, get to know, learn to love. There is such a parallel between chickenhood and womanhood, from chick to brooding to laying eggs to dying. The descriptions are lyrical, but also, so full of chicken mannerisms and chicken personalities, that you may find yourself giving a cluck of anticipation with the turn of every page. You’ll never look at an egg or a drumstick the same way ever again.

—Kathie Giorgio, author, Hope Always Rises and The Birth of a Widow