{"product_id":"ifihes","title":"If I Hold My Breath, by Esther Sadoff","description":"\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePoetry, chapbook, 40 pages, from \u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b00ff;\"\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #2b00ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/bottlecap.press\/collections\/bottlecap-features\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eBottlecap Features\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e“One of the hardest things about depression is trying to convey that experience to another person. However, Esther Sadoff’s poems capture the mix of sadness and numbness in insightful and heartbreaking ways. \u003cem\u003eIf I Hold My Breath\u003c\/em\u003e seems to take place in an interminable winter where the speaker is asked “to feel nothing, to bear everything.” But the ability to name the pain makes these songs of survival; the speaker keeps “falling down,” but “can’t stop getting up.” Sadoff’s poetry is dark, but also vivid and alive, in other words, real. There isn’t a dishonest word in this book, and anyone who has ever felt lost will be moved by these poems.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e—Justin Lacour, Editor, \u003cem\u003eTrampoline Poetry\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eThis collection consists of poems of quiet strength and solitude, set against a snowy backdrop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eThe poems ask us to reflect on desire, relationships, individuality, aging, and time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eThreaded within the collection are poems about writing and language: “Saying it makes it so but writing it makes it doubly so.” Writing is a source of solace and authors are a survival line.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eThese poems of contradiction and introspection will leave the reader with more questions than answers, as poems dance between the past, present, and future.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eMore and more of who we are will be lost. Small sacrifices accumulate within a landscape set on burying us.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eBut in the end, the speaker taunts fate, and keeps picking herself back up: “I know you’ve always hated that about me — how I keep falling down, how I can’t stop getting up.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eIn this collection, winter leaves its indelible mark: “I knew the snow would never die.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eTold with raw urgency and vulnerability, these poems will leave you breathless.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eEsther Sadoff is a teacher and writer from Columbus, Ohio. Her poems have been featured or are forthcoming in \u003cem\u003eUp the Staircase Quarterly\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eHole in the Head Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLittle Patuxent Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eJet Fuel Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eCathexis Poetry Northwest\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePidgeonholes\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eRed Ogre Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSouth Florida Poetry Journal\u003c\/em\u003e, among others. She is the author of several forthcoming chapbooks: \u003cem\u003eSome Wild Woman\u003c\/em\u003e, Finishing Line Press; \u003cem\u003eSerendipity in France\u003c\/em\u003e, Finishing Line Press; and \u003cem\u003eDear Silence\u003c\/em\u003e, Kelsay Books. \u003cspan style=\"color: #222222;\"\u003eShe was nominated for a Pushcart in 2023 by \u003cem\u003eHole in the Head Review\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Esther Sadoff","offers":[{"title":"Chapbook","offer_id":50129299964219,"sku":"IFIHES","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital Download (PDF)","offer_id":50129299996987,"sku":"IFIHESe","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0062\/4420\/4614\/files\/BREATHfront.png?v=1742838852","url":"https:\/\/bottlecap.press\/products\/ifihes","provider":"Bottlecap Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}