A boy scratches his name on a staircase as the decades sweep him over him. Young people run from childhood to claim a city that may destroy them, while in the aftermath of a terrible event even our own minds desert us. These are poems of disconnection, from ourselves and from a world that has come unmoored. They ask hard questions about our complicity in creating that world. But they are poems too about what may be found and honoured in that unforgiving space. The city with its 'centuries of settlement and bone' is also a place of refuge and consolation, while the physical world 'which built us and birthed us' is 'with us to the end'. Fragile young lives, caught 'between wonder and dismay', are witnessed without judgement. Face it asks us to take an unflinching but compassionate look at everything we've made and everything that has made us, as we struggle through the constraints of our own nature, continually seeking our own selves and 'something that looks like home'.

About the Author
M. Stasiak grew up in Newfoundland, and now lives and works in London. Her work has been published in magazines including Magma, The Rialto, Brittle Star, Interpreter's House, Envoi, Urthona, Iota, Poetry Salzburg Review, The North, Long Poem Magazine and Shearsman. Face it is her first full collection, following the chapbook, Enchant / Extinguish.


Book Information
ISBN 9781837380183
Author M Stasiak
Format Paperback
Page Count 92
Imprint Shearsman Books
Publisher Shearsman Books
Weight(grams) 119g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 140mm * 6mm