Chamber After Chamber

Born and raised in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Saara Myrene Raappana served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Southern China before moving to southwest Minnesota. Author of two chapbooks, she has published poems in journals and anthologies. She has received grants and scholarships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council, and the Sewanee Writers' Conference.

• When I say heartHeart of Lion, Heart of LightOnce upon AmericaSpawning SeasonWhen I say heartFlood ComingSelfie as Elly the DollSmokeWinter CorrespondenceSuperman and Batman SleepoverLittle Red and Little RedWhen I say heartwe carved our names IIAll I know of whiteWhen I say heart I meanParadise by the Paulding LightHome PermCanticle of Waitresses, WaitingA MothWhen I say heart I meanAfter the Funeral, Aunt Sally Tells a Story We’ve Never Heard BeforeThe wolf in the trailer,TorchConfession of the LesseeWhen I say heart I meanMy BrushPsalm with Pleather Teddy BearsIn the Women’s Hospital IIIWhen I write heart I meanElegy with Lake EffectIn Favor of DefenestrationLake AstronomyLetter to My Teenaged Self: You Are a House, You Are a Hammer, You’re the Momentum of the NailWhen I say thumping mitral floor I meanHeroic OriginSelfie as What BreaksIn the Absence of Sparrows, I Learned to Stop Hearing SparrowsHappily Ever AfterWhenever I say heart I mean Acknowledgments

“With invigorating strength and song, this gorgeous first book shows us that we are animals—hungry, driven, crafty, tender, and violent, we surprise ourselves. Saara Myrene Raappanna transmits to readers the textures of land, lake, and sky: ‘A blizzard switched the ground / for clouds and made the county blind,’ begins ‘Elegy with Lake Effect.’ Chamber after Chamber is alive with thunder, stinging insects, mud, animal blood, and human sweat; the electric influence of Lake Superior is felt throughout. This cunning, graceful speaker elucidates one of life’s most dazzling contradictions: that the heart—'the part that never sleeps’—is at once spirit and flesh, ‘light’ and ‘meat’.”—Emily Hunt, author of Company