{"product_id":"love-song-port-starboard","title":"Love Song: Port \u0026 Starboard","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI am truly, amazingly for once, speechless. Not because I’m “older than Hippocrates,” or a blue heron just landed on my morning dock, and certainly not because “it’s 5 a.m. in the ER, fluorescent lights buzzing.” No, I am because I just finished reading Ann Chinnis’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLove Song: Port \u0026amp; Starboard\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and am overwhelmed by the beauty of such profound compassion, the high exalted music of a prophet soul praising “the soft, brown bruise. . . of living.” I don’t fish or boat and am certainly not an ER doctor committed to an endless line of “drenched” emergencies, though now I know what all this feels like. Now I too am wrapped “bashful” in saving lives, and know what love feels like from the deep inside. Now I too want to “grab a handful of mane and fling” myself “onto destiny’s haunches.” This is poetry unlike anyone else’s, songs that praise the living and the dead. Believe me, you too will be speechless.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePhilip Schultz\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, author, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFailure\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand Pulitzer Prize winner\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere but for the grace, one feels, as there with grace, when reading these tactile, heart-breaking poems that embrace the very heart of the human condition. Ann Chinnis strikes a profound balance — more a braiding — of solace and solitude out on the waters of forgiveness, with no small portion of soul-wrenching ashore. One can only wish to have had Ann Chinnis as one’s physician; but the recompence is to have entry into her gorgeous poems. These are poems in full sail, with a poet of extraordinary powers at the tiller. Are they lyrics disguised as narratives, or narratives disguised as lyrics? The answer, most engagingly, is yes. What a balancing act, and what joy to have this gorgeous book in one’s hands!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJeffrey Levine\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, artistic director and publisher, Tupelo Press\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books Prime","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45914446430399,"sku":"bdfed738-2ef2-4e5a-927b-b3dec8ae07f2","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0761\/7550\/7647\/files\/0ef4898c273c03daa0c60c8af1fec210.jpg?v=1785058440","url":"https:\/\/books-prime.com\/products\/love-song-port-starboard","provider":"Books Prime","version":"1.0","type":"link"}