then, we were still living

Poetry. LGBT Studies. A 2011 Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Gay Poetry. "In these roughly whispered poems, Klein somehow—miraculously—manages to evoke a past of empty suitcases, of ghosts, while being fully present in the moment, in the now. In this way each phrase, each utterance, is completely weighted—their music enters us deeply, even as they seemingly drift past"—Nick Flynn. "Every once in a great while, someone writes a book that changes the way I read poems. Michael Klein's is one of those books. Its language is so close to the bone, there's nothing to interfere with or soften the intimate transactions between reader and poem. When the subject is death, or love, or the great metaphysical questions asked by the soul—and every poem in the book is on that scale—we see that meaning and language are one and the same"—Chase Twichell. "Everything in this book is terrifying and beautiful and necessary and there isn't one syllable that isn't absolutely required by the times we live in. This is a wholly original and essential book"—Lynn Emanuel.