Stop Lying: Poems (Pitt Poetry Series) - Softcover

Smith, Aaron

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822967049 ISBN 13: 9780822967040

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023

Synopsis

Stop Lying is Aaron Smith’s most personal and vulnerable work yet. Revolving around the death of Smith’s mother and how the poet, a gay man, faces his upbringing where his sexuality was viewed as sinful and unnatural, these poems plumb the complexities of what families say and choose not to say. How does one grieve when a relationship will forever remain unresolved? What does it mean to both regret and not regret one’s decisions? What if survival doesn’t look like what we're told it should? This is the story of a poet pushing through present-day grief and the shame of the past to find the buried truths, the ones that are hardest to tell.

About this title

About the Author

Aaron Smith is the author of three books of poetry: Primer, Appetite, and Blue on Blue Ground, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize. His work has appeared in numerous publications including Ploughshares and Best American Poetry. A three-time finalist

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

AFTERLIFE 

 

Sometimes 

the hardest part 

 

is wondering  

if my mother died 

 

believing  

I would go 

 

to hell 

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822967049
• ISBN 13: 9780822967040
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 108