{"product_id":"9780809385676","title":"Threshold","description":"Jennifer Richter presents a series of poems that explore the many facets of the term \"threshold.\" Throughout the collection, the narrator experiences several acts of threshing, or separating—from birth and the small yet profound distances that part a mother and child, to the separation caused by illness and its toll on relationships. At the same time, she is progressively gathering, piecing together the remnants of her life, collecting her children into her arms, and welcoming a future without pain. Pain is often present in these poems, as the narrator frequently confronts her own threshold for enduring a ravaging illness. Her harrowing struggle through recovery is chronicled by a poem at the end of each section, tracing her powerful journey from deep suffering to a fragile yet steadfast sense of hope.\u003cbr\u003e      These gripping lyric and prose poems explore duality in its many forms: the private, contemplative world versus a world of action; the mirror sides of health and sickness; the warmth of a June sun and the deep, long nights of winter; mother and child; collecting and letting go. From the comfort of a morning bed at home to the desperate streets of Hanoi, \u003ci\u003eThreshold\u003c\/i\u003e is a searing portrait of healing, the courage it takes to bridge the gulfs that divide, and the wonder of the ties that bind.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eWhat Is My Body Without You?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e My son’s pajamas unsnapped\u003cbr\u003e on the floor: small husk\u003cbr\u003e of his body relaxing on its back,\u003cbr\u003e legs and sleeves still filled\u003cbr\u003e with his rush.  This part of him\u003cbr\u003e hasn’t outgrown my arms\u003cbr\u003e and sometimes lets me lift\u003cbr\u003e him up our steep stairs,\u003cbr\u003e carry him to bed and pull\u003cbr\u003e his shade against the gray\u003cbr\u003e thin winter sky like milk\u003cbr\u003e my daughter wakes up wanting. \u003cbr\u003e In the last days of lifting her\u003cbr\u003e to my breast, I fill her less\u003cbr\u003e than the air already gone\u003cbr\u003e from my son’s flat shape.\u003cbr\u003e Twice like that I have lain back,\u003cbr\u003e the doctor opening me\u003cbr\u003e along the same clean seam. \u003cbr\u003e Each time I was watching:\u003cbr\u003e with a few tugs the child\u003cbr\u003e was out, naked and heading\u003cbr\u003e toward other hands, each child\u003cbr\u003e cut loose before I knew it.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Southern Illinois University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47068998140144,"sku":"9780809385676","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780809385676_p0.jpg?v=1763741008","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780809385676","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}