The Hook Was Very Sharp

By Ginger Legato

Where does one find solace after the death of a father? Who will listen without judgment to grief's flood of fragile memories, insights, regrets?

  The young narrator of this collection addresses a meandering creek where she and her father spent quiet hours together fishing. "

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abiquiu Press
• Release date: Feb 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781732823730

Ginger Legato

Ginger Legato is a poet, artist and book designer. Her poems have appeared in American Tanka, Fixed and Free Poetry Anthology 2021, Heliotrope, Rubberreality, Seeds, The Magazine, Trickster, and Written with a Spoon: A Poet's Cookbook. She received a First Place Award for a single poem from the New Mexico State Poetry Society and is a winner of the Southwest Literary Center/Recursos de Santa Fe, Discovery Competition.Legato is well known as an interior book designer for the Penguin Poetry Series. She earned her BFA from the Pratt Institute, and studied sculpture at Parsons School of Design and welding at the Art Students League of New York City. Her artwork has been exhibited in New York galleries, the Brooklyn Bridge subway station, and the Brooklyn Museum. Her current work may be found on Instagram. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Book preview

THE HOOK WAS VERY SHARP

CHAPBOOKS BY GINGER LEGATO

Slipping Inward

When I Die

Reconciliation

Pink

Tumbleweed

Copyright © 2022 by Ginger Legato. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any written,

electronic, recording, or photocopying form without

written permission

of the publisher or author.

Every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the

information contained herein, the author and publisher assume

no responsibility for errors or omissions.

Illustrations © 2022 Ginger Legato

ISBN 978-1-7238237-2-3 (paper)

ISBN 978-1-7328237-3-0 (electronic)

Publised by Abiquiu Press

[e-mail]

First Edition

Printed in the United States of America

for

Francis John Peter

CONTENTS

PRELUDE

RUE

CREEK I

CREEK

FAREWELL

CREEK

REVERIE

CREEK

FISHERMEN II

PULSE

SILK

LAMENT

FAUX

WOODEN

KNIFE

SLICKER

CHILL

LA FAMIGLIA III

FIREBIRD

LA STREGA

STARDUST

LIGHT & SWEET

NANA’S DOELING

FINCHES

BLUSH

WORK IV

LAST GAS

TWELVE BURNER

MARTINIS

DOWN THE HATCH

FAREWELL

LUCK V

WHAT LUCK?

SPORT OF KINGS

ASHES

THOROUGHBRED

AFTER THE RACES

CREEK

LAMENT VI

FAINT HEART

BLADE AGAINST STEEL

FUGUE

LAMENT

HOMING

DESERT

Notes

Acknowledgments

I want the shelter

of the doorframe

of a prayer. If only

for a moment

I want to stand like the blue flame

of a wave

in