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Spotlight: Palm Lines by Jonathan Koven

Jonathan Koven’s incoming fiction novella Below Torrential Hill is the second place winner of the 2020 Electric Eclectic Novella Prize, expected winter 2021. Eagerly anticipating its release, it’s encouraged you familiarize yourself with Koven’s tender and lyrical voice. His debut, titled Palm Lines, is a spellbinding and intimate collection of poems, now available from Toho Publishing.

Here is a short trailer which was launched prior to Palm Lines‘ release, featuring a snippet of one of its poems. The excerpted poem is posted below, in full . . .

Present

Walk to the edge of the beach. Lift your arms.
The spray, salt flying,
wind blowing, gasps
as if the moment itself nearly
never happened.

At night, they pass faster than the zip of dragonflies. A train station, you are. Operate, channel, historize, vanish.

Everything you do is the receiving and translating of different prayers. You don’t know who says them.

In this moment, skyscrapers rise like titans
in pale pre-dawn guise,
gale sibilant like closed windows whistling,
New York’s final sound. Ocean falls
from the sky, crashes sidewalks, rolls
and fills the slits between every crack in the street,
every alley, into every window, every
mouth and eye and ear and the lines of every palm—
the key which unlocks your chimera,
and you may finally awaken. Or
would you rather stay?

The rim of a silver circle in the sky, the center of her chest, the way a universe puckers its lips and softly coos itself to sleep.

Love crawls over your heart. Maybe you stumbled into a dream, and then, into this body.

These heartfelt poems speak to a transformative journey “to rediscover love as both a question and an answer.” Seeking hope, honoring family, finding love, accepting time’s passage, and understanding gratitude are all major themes explored in this dreamlike collection.
“Palm Lines invites one into a sensuous natural world . . . [Koven] is a writer of tremendous skill.” —Tracey Levine, author of You Are What You Are and Asst. Professor of English at Arcadia University
“Its poetry flows masterfully between the delicate balance of nature and humanity.” —Philip Dykhouse, author of Bury Me Here

“These are ecstatic poems which wrestle with surrender. Even as they reach outward, they are reflecting back, mapping the story of our own hands.” —David Keplinger, author of Another City, winner of 2019 UNT Rilke Prize

“Palm Lines is an epic, a journey . . . These poems read like the work of a storyteller, speaking innately human truths over the metaphysical fire.” —Shannon Frost Greenstein, author of More. and Pray for Us Sinners

“In Palm Lines, everything is humongous because of the gravity of the beauty and emotion observed—and language is the catharsis . . . This accessible collection offers the reader an opportunity to take a deep breath and reflect.” —Sean Lynch, editor of Serotonin

Order Palm Lines at one of the links below, or DM @jonathankoven on Twitter or Instagram for a signed copy with a complementary Palm Lines-themed bookmark. Order here: Toho Publishing and Amazon.
About the Poet:
Jonathan Koven grew up on Long Island, NY, embraced by tree-speak, tide’s rush, and the love and support of his family. He lives in Philadelphia with his fiancée Delana and cats Peanut Butter and Keebler. He holds a BA in literature from American University, and is head fiction editor of Toho Journal. Credits include Night Picnic Press, Iris Literary, Halcyone Literary, and much more. His debut poetry collection Palm Lines is now available, and his award-winning fiction novella Below Torrential Hill releases this winter from Electric Eclectic.