A Floating Woman, Poems by Leonard Orr

Leonard Orr’s A Floating Woman is about the arc of connection and separation, the light of intimacy and the dark of absence, a journey that cannot be described but only felt.

Sample Poems by Leonard Orr

“In A Floating Woman, Leonard Orr describes the joy, passion, heartbreak and devastation that can result from giving one’s heart—fully, wholly, completely—to another. In this rich and textured work, Orr urgently grapples with the complicated twists of romantic yearning, the impossibility of truly knowing the intentions of others, and the instability of the recollected past. Here, the speaker’s rapture, obsession, pain, and mourning are revealed in poems that are strange and sexy, longing and wistful, humming with desire, trembling with vulnerability.”—Terry Martin

Praise for Leonard Orr’s Previous Work

“Leonard Orr’s Why We Have Evening could be called the Song of Solomon of the inland Northwest. . . . Orr is a poet whose words are thanksgivings for the wedding of meaning and mystery. . . at the heart of a life expressed in language.”—Carolyne Wright

“When people are in passionate love, they usually write terrible love poems. Here, Orr takes the excess and subverts it, cleverly, with wit, humor and purpose. He avoids condescension, bitterness and if you detect cynicism it is because you’ve brought your own. . . . Orr’s Why We Have Evening is a poetry collection I will be reading several times.”—Chris Jarmick

Leonard Orr, Professor of English at Washington State University Vancouver, is the author or editor thirteen books of literary criticism. His poetry has appeared in many journals including Poetry International, Rattle, Black Warrior Review, Poetry East, Rosebud, and Natural Bridge. His most recent poetry collections are Why We Have Evening (2010) and Timing Is Everything (2012), both from Cherry Grove/WordTech.

ISBN: 978-1625491633, 92 pages, $18

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