Goddess Suite

In Goddess Suite, Lisa Hammond “stops all clocks / slivers time still,” grants us “one more wayward moment” when goddesses live among us, loading dishwashers and trying on bathing suits. Each of these gorgeous sonnets is a delightful yet serious exploration of the dichotomy between the mythic and the mundane. In them, Lisa Hammond elevates the everyday and makes the glorious and mysterious not only accessible, but attainable for us all.

—Tina Mozelle Braziel, winner of the 2017 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry for her collection, Known by Salt, directs the Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. 

Goddess Suite. New Orleans: Small Fires Press, 2018.

A poetry chapbook, fully letterpress printed with hand saddle-stitched binding.

Limited edition of 65

20 pp, 5 1/4 x 7 3/4”
Available from Square 

Excerpt

i

She remembers rising from verdigris seas,
how the very first thing everyone wanted
was to cover her, offering royal robes
before she took a single step on land.

Now in Misses’ Swimsuits, she feels again
her pale skin still salty wet, red velvet,
embroidered lilies sprouting from rich pile,
heavenly raiment, hourglass shapewear.

She can shop by anxiety zone, minimize
hips and thighs, shore up her bust, sculpt and lift,
fit and flatter, cinch, slim, and silhouette.
She looks for hours, leaving suitless, weary,
even that cute emerald one-piece pinching,
nothing as fetching as her old birthday suit.