In I Think I
Know You, Julie Gard explores the
human struggle to understand each other’s hearts and histories,
along with our own. These prose poems speak of deep connection and
tragicomic
gaps in understanding, as life’s pedantic, transcendent rhythms are
mined for
revealing moments and messages. Elements include dialogue overheard in
northern
Minnesota coffee shops and at the Jersey shore, personal crashes and
landings
in the aftermath of the Soviet Union, and queer identity in middle age.
The
final section of the book is a series of text messages the author sent
to herself during a crucial election season, examining daily life,
dreamscape, and
the collective psyche in a time of political upheaval. Throughout the
poems in this book, Gard attempts to map out,
complicate, and bridge divides, concluding that a sense of belonging,
and a
shared sense of home, may be the most important thing we have to offer
each
other.
"Vivid and irresistible..."
- Minneapolis Star Tribune
"I
Think I Know You begins with an intimate epistle and culminates in a brilliant, aching, yearning chronicle, as long and
revelatory as these recent years."
- Michael Kleber-Diggs, Worldly Things
"Gard can hold opposing forces with
gentle humor. I’m glad to meet a poet who can take in both the good and bad of
this world and give readers beauty and hope. This is a great
book."
- Sheila Packa, Surface Displacements
"In masterfully crafted poetry, Gard examines illusions
of cause and effect, time, memory, identity, family, and blame, exposing the
many lives each of us has lived and lost in our past and alternate presents."
- Jayson Iwen, Roze and Blud
"I Think I Know You
is a wonderfully luminous collection of prose poetry … These poems travel far
and yield rich insights. This is salutary, perceptive and beautiful writing."
- Paul Hetherington, Prose Poetry: An Introduction
