One Person Holds So Much Silence

Author: David Greenspan

Publisher: Driftwood Press (2022)

David Greenspan's One Person Holds So Much Silence explores the intersection of physical and emotional traumas through surprising and jaw-dropping language. Simultaneously lush and bizarre, the poems in One Person Holds So Much Silence culminate in a striking deepdive into the pain and experiences of existing within a body. From self-harm to suicidal ideation, Greenspan tackles these harrowing topics through writing brimming with original language and wrought empathy. 

"Flush with grief, insistent in its longing, at times flashing with anger, the language of David Greenspan's poems—so exact, so exacting—propels the reader into all the open astonishment that the Ordinary affords us. What more could we ask of poetry than that?"

–Richard Deming

"In this visceral and powerful debut, David Greenspan exposes a world within the world we inhabit, one full of histories often left unspoken. But this is not a book simply about despair or grief; instead, Greenspan masterfully turns elegy into ode, a story of one still standing after a storm of 'inaccurate weather.' One Person Holds So Much Silence asks what it means to inhabit a body and what it means to live a life that unfolds in unexpected ways. It’s a stunning collection that continues to open through each subsequent reading, a collection that I think about as I make my way through a fractured world that begins to make more sense because of these impressive and carefully wrought poems."

 –Adam Clay