Shawna Lemay

Asking Shawna Lemay

Asking?s a collection of poems and poem-essays about paintings, ekphrasis, beauty, and deep looking which takes its title from the lines by Phyllis Webb: "Listen. If I have known beauty / let's say I came to it / asking." Conversations on the page arise from observances made at cocktail parties, art galleries, at the kitchen table, and in the suburbs. Whether offering writing prompts or advice for aspiring poets, or enacting the conventions of ekphrasis, Asking is attentive to the movements and gestures of humans as they navigate a world of bewilderments and betrayal, but also a world of light and an ordinary beauty.