Cover art: Madrigal, Laura Page
Praise for a child walks in the dark:
In a child walks in the dark, Darren C. Demaree has composed a love letter to his children, to storytelling, to survival, to language itself. This tender collection of prose poems explodes the notion of parental advice, which like poetry itself is a gesture of faith: sending words into the world, hoping someone’s listening. Every line here is a fervent wish, a prayer, a promise. “What do you need,” a father asks, and what is so achingly beautiful about this book is that we know the answer is everything and nothing and simply to be asked in the first place.
—Amorak Huey, author of Dad Jokes Late in the Patriarchy
Darren C. Demaree’s a child walks in the dark is a collection of fables for our time. Each prose poem starts the same way—a fascinating declaration that the speaker tells to his son, to his daughter, or to his children together. It may seem like a risk to begin each unpunctuated poem with a similar phrase but with Demaree’s skill with language, this convention is a brilliant way to unify this imaginative and urgent collection. “The entire planet earth is a revenge story and you’re already a part of it,” the speaker tells his children. If you have ever wondered why in the time besieged by a global pandemic, climate change, corporate greed, police killings, gun violence in schools, and extreme political turmoil one would bring children into the world, this book provides a satisfying answer. This new generation, with their conscience and social conviction, provides hope for our damaged world. “when i told you our president was trying to hurt the planet you broke a lamp you’re seven so i thought that was a bit extreme but there was no punishment there will be no punishment you are the punishment for everyone that gets in the way of a thriving earth and it’s my job to stay out of your way” With an attention and artistry towards fatherhood that I have never seen so poignantly described in verse, Demaree shows us the way radical acceptance may save us. “i love all of the people you will try and fail to be and i love all of the lies you will tell yourself and i love you for lying to me about who you are and want to be as long as you are always searching for that person i will say all of the names you give yourself as long as you are living i will hold every incarnation of your world as part of my own”
—Jennifer Franklin, author of No Small Gift
In these honest and imaginative poems, Demaree gives us a glimpse into a father's whole and blessed acceptance of his children for who they are and for who they will be. In these poems, the father is present and reachable and therefore fallible. Here is a world where a child is an ocean or a ship, squints at the problems of the world or runs naked through the streets. Here the magic of childhood meets the real and often surreal concerns of love and parenting. Here is a world where the darkness isn't shied away from, but the fierce light shines bright enough to tame it.
—Donna Vorreyer, author of to everything there is
Read a review of “a child walks in the dark” on Harbor Review by Cameron Morse.
Darren C. Demaree grew up in Mount Vernon, Ohio. He is a graduate of the College of Wooster, Miami University, and Kent State University. He is the recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal. He is the Editor-in-chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently working in the Columbus Metropolitan Library system, and living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children. "a child walks in the dark" is his sixteenth full-length collection of poetry.