The Truth Is Told Better This Way

By Liz Worth

Shortlisted for the 2018 ReLit Award for Poetry

Pulling from raw themes of grief and death, regret and discomfort, sadness and failure, Worth wears these poems down to their bones. Straddling dreamy, ethereal images and brutal honesty, The Truth is Told Better This Way unravels its secrets one line at a time. The result is oracular and surreal, as each piece could be read as a magic spell that mesmerizes as much as a poem that tantalizes the senses.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bookhug Press
• Release date: Oct 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781771663434

Book preview

first edition

copyright © 2017 Liz Worth

all rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The production of this book was made possible through the generous assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. BookThug also acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Book Fund.

BookThug wishes to acknowledge the land on which it operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Worth, Liz, 1982–, author

       The truth is told better this way / Liz Worth. — First edition.

Poems.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77166-342-7 (softcover)

ISBN 978-1-77166-343-4 (HTML)

ISBN 978-1-77166-344-1 (PDF)

ISBN 978-1-77166-345-8 (Kindle)

       I. Title.

PS8645.O767T78 2017 C811’.6 C2017-905440-6

C2017-905441-4

Contents

Part one: Aspirations

Suburban wilds: a self-portrait

Spit, sister

Supermoon weekend

Reach deep

Mirror motion

Falter grace

New math

Split lip

What you do best

Carnivores

All that I have broken

R.W.

The truth is told better this way

Cicada

Aspirations

Part two: Forest tides

Forest tides

Osso

Seeds of the moon

Trailhead

Promise me something

Awake, we wanted to

Anise and fennel

Phantom Beach

Part three: The rules we know

Alderwood

Sunshine

Better than each other

O’Connor Park

As paradise

At the next table

The rules we know

The bridge

In the tread

Saturn changing signs

Part four: Unfolded confessions

Distillation

Transcendence

Retrograde

The dog is a god

Unseen

The Witch of Positano

Spells

Ghost in the hallway

Wakes the owl

As locusts

Corner of the night

Notes and Acknowledgements

About the Author

Colophon

Part one: Aspirations

Suburban wilds: a self-portrait

Chipped tooth