On the Blink

Available from Finishing Line Press.

What Is At Every Stage I’ve Been?

In her second poetry collection, Emily K. Michael invokes restorative themes: birdsong, domestic warmth, and family memories. At Every Stage I’ve Been asserts the poet’s right to define herself against expectations. Whether revisiting the theatrical efforts of childhood or beginning a new aspect of romance, these poems negotiate the conflict of external pressures and the joy of inner triumphs. Michael’s nod to the power of myth in everyday spaces occurs in poems like “Social Mobility” and “Everyone Says.” She charts the intensity of grief and repose in “Humming,” “Coming Home,” and “Consolations.” And she meets the difficulty of her blindness in “Lingua Franca” and “Why I Prefer Sandwiches.” These poems vibrate with local birds, cherished dogs, and faithful companions. This is a work of renewal and rejoicing. Poems from this collection have been featured in Nine Mile Magazine, Tupelo Quarterly, Welcome to the Resistance, Split This Rock, and Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature.

What Poets Are Saying about Michael’s Second Book

“The poems in Emily K. Michael’s stellar new collection are perfectly rendered sketches of a life richly lived and keenly observed. Lyrical, wise, and uncompromising, we have here a manifesto with a love story embedded inside it. ‘…trade [your] rain dances for braille dances—sway for ramps, spring for sign language, spin and stamp and leap’ in gratitude for the gems to be found in this small but mighty book.”
— Ona Gritz, Everywhere I Look

“Emily K. Michael pours her experience into autobiographical poems where the details tell a relatable story. These poems juxtapose alienation growing up and today with the importance of those who reflect that we are worthy and capable. You will relish accompanying a woman who steps fully into life. Michael invokes a better world for the next generation, a world where people easily accommodate needs to bring everyone along. The protagonist of these poems is an accomplished woman. She has learned to rely on loved ones and her guide dog.” 
— C.A. Pomerleau, Every Day, They Became Part of Him 

“From the opening page of At Every Stage I’ve Been, we know we are in the presence of a sensual poet. Speaking of her guide dog, Emily K. Michael writes: ‘Now he leans into my lap. Glossy black / along the crushed grape of my dress, / he nuzzles the fringed scarf in my hands.’ One after another, these poetic photographs, with their vivid detail, make one feel what it’s like to be in the picture. Michael can even bring us into imagining what it’s like to be her in some of her more intimate moments with her beloved, or while she caresses her dying grandfather’s hand and quietly sings to him. We are with her in the joy of listening to birdsong and in the sting of being minimized as a woman and made ‘other’ as a blind person. For the most part, At Every Stage I’ve Been is a book of subtlety. Michael never needs to turn victim or pound the table. She can count on her attention to language and specifics to do the work of her poetry. When she writes about her blindness, it is both poignant and matter-of-fact. While blindness plays a significant part, it is not the whole story. Finally, this is a book replete with love—love for her partner, for her guide dog, and for life itself.”
— Daniel Simpson, Inside the Invisible