Beneath the White Lattice (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781961763234)

Life holds wonder and weight in equal measure, and the poems in Beneath the White Lattice refuse to look away from either. This inaugural anthology from Open Kimono Publishing gathers prize-winning work by Joel Savishinsky, Laura Boatner, and Lauren Muzek-selected through the 2024-2025 Poetry Competition-alongside new poems by Nicoletta M. Cosentino and Alex Brown. Together they write toward the difficult place where limitation meets possibility, where private grief presses against public life, where ordinary days turn luminous because someone pays precise attention.

The title is a metaphor for the forces beneath our routines-the quiet lattice of habit, history, law, and belief that frames choice. Under that structure we walk, stumble, and endure; we find grace in fragments and meaning in places others pass by. Some poems move with tenderness, others with an unflinching gaze, and many carry both in a single breath. The selection favors work that stirs something undeniable rather than comfortable agreement, inviting readers to see with sharper eyes and softer hearts, to read slowly, and to stay with what lingers.

Ranging across love, memory, aging, identity, family, faith, labor, community, and the precarious weather of civic life, these poems honor the unspectacular moments that make a human life: the pause before a decision, the ache of distance, the stubborn joy that rises in exhaustion, the small relief of a hand found in the dark. Lyrical yet grounded, the collection shows how attention itself can become a practice of care, and how language, handled with patience, can widen what feels possible. Each voice is distinct, yet together they form a living conversation about endurance, tenderness, responsibility, and the fragile art of hope.

For readers of contemporary poetry who value honesty over certainty, Beneath the White Lattice offers companionship rather than prescription. It is not an escape and not a manifesto; it invites the reader to stand in the tension and remain awake to possibility. Whether read cover to cover or savored piece by piece, the anthology leaves a lasting sense that life, even when difficult, is still generous, and that art can help us live it more fully.