Songs for Leaving by A.S. Coomer
“A.S. Coomer’s poems trace the “receding stygian tide kept barely at bay,” but he’s not in the business of delineating spiritual doom and lived experience. This poetry seeks to invent new phrasings that we might utter or listen to as we “count the hours by the silt rings.” “Despite it all: / make, do, see / if you’re able” Coomer implores us. These Songs For Leaving are outboard lyrics engineered to propel us around liminal island, “greasy hullaballoos… electric fangs rending neon flesh.” I know Coomer’s readers will find this chapbook a welcome addition to his polymathic catalogue. It’s hard not to fall in.”—Cal Freeman, author of Poolside at the Dearborn Inn