Velocity: Poems by Nancy Krygowski

Introduction by Sherrie Flick

Nancy Krygowski’s work has been with me for a long time. I’ve followed her poems (her boyfriends, her apartments, her vintage dishware) from New Hampshire to California to Ohio to Nebraska to Pennsylvania. So when her debut collection Velocity was published I thought I knew the book already, like you think you know your sister until she wears that new sequin dress and you set down your coffee cup and say (to yourself), pay attention.

And so, I came to be on a bus, the 54c to be exact, with Nancy’s new book in my bag. (I was carrying it around, awash in friend-pride.) I opened it, there on the bus, and the poems—honed and beautiful, sad and simple, lonely and lusty—all came together as a whole. Bing. I read through the book, front to back, right there in my window seat, and I saw everything, not just Nancy, but the world itself anew.

Isn’t that what we all want from poetry? Let me answer that: Yes. Yes, it is.

READ THE EXCERPT FROM VELOCITY

CLICK HERE to purchase a copy of Velocity.

“Heaven As We Know It,” “How She Learned to Listen,” “Everything,” and “What the Next Voice Said,” are from Velocity by Nancy Krygowski © 2007. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Used by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.