A Longer Word Than Sorrow (Poetry)
Author: Karl Sherlock
ISBN: 979-8-953140-01-0
Publisher: River Paw Press
Page Count: 38
Language: English
Price: $17.99
Shortlisted for the 2026 Silent River Poetry Prize, A Longer Word Than Sorrow is a richly textured collection of poems about grief, memory, history, love, disability, identity, and the fragile relationship between human lives and the natural world.
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“Karl Sherlock is the ichthammol of contemporary American poets—drawing out physical glitter like splinters from my sore swollen head. His poems are at once highly personal and utterly metaphysical, with titles such as ‘Sense’ or ‘There,’ which in no way explains how he makes my muscles swoop and flinch. ‘I can’t keep up with Karl,’ I’ve thought, then taken a few steps into a poem—suddenly I’m breakdancing backwards while being swallowed by a python. Sherlock is most generous with his animating superpower; the Other gets some, too, like a flock of wild parrots in ‘Zygodactyl’: ‘they enclave the rooftops / of Chaldean markets, uproot / from eucalyptus to date palm / to power lines, break apart into / phonemes to rejoin as syllables // until one last solitary ruckus / lurches onward to the open verse’ … the open verse where we are, writhing lithely.”
—Jennifer L. Knox, poet and author of Drunk by Noon and Days of Shame and Failure
“Karl Sherlock’s poems are quite remarkable. His poems feel like meditations—on history, the self, and poetry. His strong voice builds through precise and evocative imagery. The variety of form and subject is masterful. This book is a pleasure.”
—Ken Pobo, poet and author of Raylene and Skip and The Book of Micah
“A Longer Word Than Sorrow amazed me with its richly textured poetic language and its ability to transform history, grief, love, and memory into poetry of enduring beauty. This is a book one must return to, read and reread. With remarkable artistic precision and emotional depth, the collection reveals how language itself can illuminate both personal and collective experience.”
—Kalpana Singh Chitnis, poet and judge, 2026 Silent River Poetry Prize
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