Praise:
“The poems in What the Mouth Was Made For are mystical meditations, at once lyrical, tender, and profoundly felt, each poem flying directly into the heart. Indeed, if the heart had a mouth, these are the kinds of poems it would speak.” —Nin Andrews
“In this new collection, Katie Riegel tends ‘what must be tended.’ Line by line, with clarity enough to sting your eyes, she rekindles that tender and slightly crazed engagement with life that shaped us before we got used to the world. I found myself unjaded for hours at a time. These poems are fresh food for the head and heart, which is what poetry should be–and what most of us desperately need. Get this book. Get full.” —Tim Seibles
From the book:
KATIE-LESS
In a world without me, hundreds—no,
thousands—of people would have one less crush
in their lives. My friends
would have a name melting
in the back of their minds like a sugar cube,
a name they’d never learned but knew
despite logic. In a world without
me, stars would retreat
a short distance, considering their places
again; grass would stand watching
the road for something
to happen; trees would take
deep breaths and remain stoic.
Everything I love would be less
loved—and wouldn’t that
be a shame? Sometimes I think about
being a horse in a blue pasture, a hawk crying
my heart out to the wind. But I wouldn’t be
anything in a world without me, even less
than the first sweet molecules of hydrogen and oxygen
to touch your lips
when you tilt a glass of water back
to slake your thirst.