Arranging Words

Fran Abrams lives in Rockville, MD. Her poems have been published online and in print in Cathexis-Northwest Press, The American Journal of Poetry, MacQueen's Quinterly Literary Magazine, The Raven's Perch, Gargoyle, and many others. Her poems also appear in more than a dozen anthologies. In December 2021, she won the Washington Writers Publishing House Winter Poetry Prize for her poem titled "Waiting for Snow." In July 2022, her poem "Arranging Words" was a finalist in the 2022 Prime Number Magazine Award for Poetry. Her autobiographical book of poems, titled I Rode the Second Wave: A Feminist Memoir, was published in 2022 by Atmosphere Press. Her first chapbook, The Poet Who Loves Pythagoras, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2023. Please visit franabramspoetry.com for more.

Arranging Words is Abrams' second chapbook collection. Like her first chapbook, The Poet Who Loves Pythagoras, this book is a series of light-hearted poems that asks the reader to look at the world from a new perspective. These poems approach letters, words, and everyday phrases in a way that pokes fun at the eccentricities of the English language.For example, her poem titled "K Knows How to Hide and Seek" begins with the line "K knocks twice, but we only hear him once," reminds us how often "k" is a silent letter. The poem "Poetry Exercise" plays on the meaning of the word "exercise" with the line "Brain cells stretch, lift your arms, reach for words." Phrases are deconstructed into literal meanings, such as in the poem "Beside Myself" that asks, "Am I myself or the one beside myself?"This collection illuminates the quirks of the English language in a lively, humorous way while demonstrating a love for words themselves.