AJ Romriell

"'Alchemy: An Abridged Biography' braids together the incongruous in the tradition of non-fiction writing, while brief, episodic stanzas attempt to build towards (or alchemize towards) a cohesive narrative of the self. Where the poem fails, repeats, reattempts (“which also means it’s possible to transmute lead into gold / and death into life and me into—more or less—me”), it veers to the outer edges of its long, enjambed lines, even as it veers towards the edges of the universe (inherently always experienced by a self). Deeply philosophical and sonically evocative (“tilt my head back and lick glass clean”), “ALCHEMY” is the poem as a question that must endlessly be asked. Each time I read it I am profoundly moved."

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—Raena Shirali, author of GILT