Lift: Poems (Ragged Sky Poetry)

An original collection of poems by Luray Gross. "Luray Gross' Lift represents the work of an accomplished poet at the height of her powers. Assured and lyrical, with no word wasted, Gross' poems are precisely observed while containing multitudes. On subjects that range from childhood, adulthood, and family life to religious faith, war, and social justice, the stories Gross tells are united in their power to move us toward a new recognition of our shared humanity. Gross assures us, 'Language will not abandon us/ will say what needs to be said, enough/ to make the world a burden we can bear.' Thankfully, we have this graceful poet to lift us out of complacency and despair and to elevate our understanding." --Ethel Rackin, author of Evening

Luray Gross’ Lift represents the work of an accomplished poet at the height of her powers. Assured and lyrical, with no word wasted, Gross’ poems are precisely observed while containing multitudes. On subjects that range from childhood, adulthood, and family life to religious faith, war, and social justice, the stories Gross tells are united in their power to move us toward a new recognition of our shared humanity. Gross assures us, “Language will not abandon us/ will say what needs to be said, enough/ to make the world a burden we can bear.”  Thankfully, we have this graceful poet to lift us out of complacency and despair and to elevate our understanding.—Ethel Rackin, author of Evening

Lift is one of those books you open only to realize that you’ve been waiting for it, all your life; lines so measured and expansive they could be windows; windows you didn’t know you needed to look through till you found yourself under the spell of the vistas they offered. Luray Gross invites us into language that not only promises to say what needs to be said, but to say it in such a way that it will create an enchanted place for us to explore again and again, a world resonantly solid and intriguingly insubstantial, full of anguish and joy at the same time, and the permeable membrane reverberating between realms.—Christopher Bursk, author of The Improbable Swervings of Atoms