What Remains

A new book of poems from Michael Ansara published in 2022 by Kelsay Books

In Michael Ansara's What Remains we encounter a world we sometimes forget in the incessant chatter of our mediated culture; we are reminded of our creatureliness, our vulnerability, and our humanity. These are poems in which eros, in its fullest earthly sense, is joined to emotion, and passion issues as tenderness. Whether he is considering the feel of life as a child, as a parent, as a husband, as a citizen, Ansara's poems insist that "what remains" has much to teach us. I have learned much from these poems; so will you.

Richard Hoffman, Author of Noon until Night

What Remains is a wondrous first collection from poet, essayist, activist, and organizer Michael Ansara. Language lifts off the pages of these poems that celebrate a rich, full life, filled with family, nature, love, and loss. This book is an exploration into what it means to be present in the world: Vast, undulating, / Pulled by the unseen / Weight of the moon. Tough, gritty, tender, and intimate, What Remains is the strongest debut collection I’ve read in a very long time. What a joy to hold these poems in my hands and my heart.

January Gill O’Neil, Author of Rewilding

Michael Ansara has been such a good citizen, and has cared so much about other people's poetry, it's important to remember what a good poet he is himself. The poems here are heartbreakingly aware of mortality and injustice--yet they are also open to love and nature, beauty and the beauty of language (“the feel of fat against the top of the tongue”). I'm grateful that Michael Ansara cares about poetry. I'm equally grateful that he writes it. 

Lloyd Schwartz, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author of Who’s on First?: New and Selected Poems