Numerator Denominator

Abstract

A collection of poems exploring the relationship between self, interpretation of memory, and the dynamic structure of families, nuclear and not. The notion of family as a wider concept, a unit that can be heartily constructed, maintained, and destructed beyond the ties of blood relations, is a focus of numerous poems in the collection. The title poem, “Numerator Denominator,"? evokes, through associative leaps in language, the implicit shifts of emotion that surround personal relationships—the countless divisions and facets of oneself exposed. The structures of the poems in the collection range from free verse to a nonce sonnet sequence to the repetitive drive of the sestina. The poems are not divided into sections, but are arranged in such a way that connects the themes and flow of the work while still allowing the reader to explore her/his own connections throughout the collection.