Kathleen Cassen Mickelson

Gyroscope Press is proud to offer its second publication, the chapbook How We Learned To Shut Our Own Mouths, by Minnesota poet Kathleen Cassen Mickelson.

How We Learned To Shut Our Own Mouths by Kathleen Cassen Mickelson

How We Learned To Shut Our Own Mouths is available on AMAZON in both print and e-book formats.

3 Poems

Practice

The Wild Turkey I Named Lilith

When You Ask Me What I’m Made Of

Praise for How We Learned To Shut Our Own Mouths

Beneath a quiet domesticity, uncertainty looms. “Who among us will be dead by next year? Next month? Tomorrow?” the poet asks in “Notes from the Pandemic.” Birthed by political upheaval, racial strife and the relentless terror of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mickelson’s remarkable poems find solace in what matters; the changing of the seasons, nature’s wild creatures, her beloved family, the reassuring promise of routine. The quiet dread that permeates this beautiful collection is countered by glimmers of hope. “Hope is the place from which this book flows,” Mickelson states in her foreword. I couldn’t have said it any better.

— Alexis Rhone Fancher, author of The Dead Kid Poems, poetry editor, Cultural Weekly

“Kathleen Cassen Mickelson’s contemplative poems in How We Learned to Shut Our Own Mouths guide us through the seasons of an unusual year and invite us to behold the promise of rebirth, beauty, and peace. She appreciates the everyday and makes it magical as she bids us to see “rain-gemmed gold leaves” and her winter breath “…ahead in small white puffs, a tiny dragon setting fire to the world.” Through her vibrant imagery, we share a time and feelings often familiar, even in our unique experiences.”

—Annis Cassells, author of You Can’t Have It All

In her Forward to How We Learned to Shut Our Mouths, Kathleen Cassen Mickelson announces “Nothing is off limits to the power of love.” This declaration sets the tone of a chapbook that bears witness to a world struggling with a pandemic and social unrest, while simultaneously celebrating an artist’s ability to “welcome that clarity our fear keeps obscured.”

Mickelson finds clarity in cooking, walking her dog, video chatting with relatives, and honoring a partner who “… alwaysknow[s]/the right tools/to thaw my heart.” She invites readers to keep their eyes wide open because “There is no reason to rush, nowhere else to be./All we need to do is share this meal, this moment, this now.”

This chapbook is a nurturing and inspiring repast. You’ll want a second helping of Mickelson’s poems whenever your fears begin to obscure the power of love.

—Carolyn Martin, poetry editor of Kosmos Quarterly: journal for global transformation and author of Nothing More to Lose (The Poetry Box, 2020)

Kathleen Cassen Mickelson Bio

Kathleen Cassen Mickelson runs the site, One Minnesota Writer, from her home office in Roseville, Minnesota. Kathleen also co-founded the contemporary poetry journal, Gyroscope Review, where she served as co-editor until 2020. She received a BA in English from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University. When she’s not writing, she cooks, hikes with her spouse, takes photos, drinks whiskey, and celebrates her grown children.

Website: One Minnesota Crone, where older women don’t disappear – they branch out