How Can I Say It Was Not Enough?

A candid memoir-in-poems about family dynamics, love, and sex—in ravishing and accessible verse.
 
Now Available at Amazon, Bookshop.org, Syracuse University Press, or Nine Mile Press.
 
“Brutal yet gorgeous.”
—Poet Elaine Terranova, author of Rinse.
 
“There is searing truth in these enthralling poems.”
— Eleanor Wilner, 2025 Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets
 
"Anne Kaier’s How Can I Say it Was Not Enough? is a generous book. Let’s say for argument’s sake that poetry readers are, even in the twenty first century eager to find community on the page. The generosity I’m describing must always remain invitational. If the body is unreliable, if abjection remains a life long struggle, then the imagination should of necessity suggest something beyond mere confession. Empathetic visions are what’s called for in every aspect of life. Kaier’s poems deliver."
—Stephen Kuusisto