Welcome back to The Book Bag. I hope you’ve had a poetic week. I’ve probably asked this about 437 times this week, but how is it October? I’ve had quite the rollercoaster this week. Sunday morning was spent at the allotment, making a bulb lasagne. Hopefully come spring, we’ll have some lovely pastels flowering. Fingers crossed! I also saw Newcastle get (undeservedly) beat by Arsenal. But then we bounced back with a Champions League win. It was also the 2nd anniversary of getting Brody. We celebrated by giving him toys and treats.

Blood Alluvium is a séance in free verse, lighting candles off the tension between Duncan's Ashkenazi Jewish and Appalachian-Gael heritage, measuring breath by the fragile stillness between trauma and...

Parlyaree Press Favorite Poem: I Am the Man That I Wanted to Be Three things I loved: 1. A lot of what Chris describes are things I thought were part of the female condition, like imposter syndrome and self-doubt, but it turns out men have feelings and insecurities too. (I’m being facetious.)  2. I haven’t read much work through this gaze and I was impressed with Chris’s navigation of daily life and the poetic.