The Ocean in the Next Room

An attentive collection of poems seeking answers about how to live meaningfully in a world saturated by white noise."The question isn't / what exists," writes Sarah V. Schweig in this engrossing collection of poems, "The question is what doesn't / die with us?" Positioned from within the morass of modern-day living, The Ocean in the Next Room searches for the hard, abiding particles of truth buried beneath the mantle of late capitalism. Stillness. Sunsets. The circadian rhythm of trees. These poems guide us to look past content, brands, and relentless jargon to find meaning in those layers of the world that operate without human intervention or interpretation.And yet: "Why this impulse to poetry if I believe the literal all that's left?" In verse that is at once inventive and innately familiar, Schweig unpacks the urge to make art, life, and connections even at the risk of becoming further entangled in the Anthropocene. In the face of the twenty-first century's fearful enormities and its persistent mundanities, she posits, we need reminders that beauty, friendship, and kindness, are all still possible. "We light lights / in the dark. It's a human thing."Profound and clear-sighted, this collection--selected by Cynthia Cruz for the 2023-24 Jake Adam York Prize--urges us to lift our gazes from our screens and really look at the world around us. If we measure our attentions and sharpen our intentions, if we "try again to write / the truth things," we might spy something real on the horizon.