Temporary House

Chris Ransick writes eloquently of the domestic and quotidian in Temporary House: fresh bread baking in the oven, a dog's love and loyalty, coaxing gardens through every season. In this posthumous collection, readers will find the poet's characteristic sagacity, as well as sardonic humor. Ransick's poetry continues to cast a rare light in the world. When he tells us, "The next garden will be / as beautiful, you just / wait and see," we believe him-because we've learned to trust his singular voice, in all things poetic and beyond.
- Joy Roulier Sawyer, author of Lifeguards and Tongues of Men and Angels

Temporary House is a powerful book. It captures Chris Ransick's muse in full cry, expressing where lifelong devotion to his art had brought him before the catastrophe of cancer struck. In much of this work Chris is a master symbolist. A mysterious and meaningful spiritual world shimmers behind or within our daily lives.
- David J. Rothman, author of My Brother's Keeper, Colorado Book Award Finalist; former Poet Laureate of
Colorado's Western Slope; former Resident Poet of Colorado Public Radio

I have never seen a poet grow by such leaps as Chris accomplished in the last two years of his short life, and these final books, Temporary House and Joe the Ghost, catch him at his best, darkly funny, humane, eager for life.
-David Mason, former Colorado Poet Laureate, author of Ludlow: A Verse Novel

Temporary House by Chris Ransick is filled with precise and surprising language play. There is a sympathy for the homeless, the abused, and a love and celebration of the natural world. These poems are highly imagistic and lyrical. Ransick masters the nuances of form and sound. These poems are packed with meaning and wisdom. This is a gorgeous collection.
-Sheryl Luna, author of Magnificent Errors, Seven, and Pity the Drowned Horses

Empathy and wisdom are hallmarks of Chris Ransick's poetry and nowhere is this more powerfully display than is his collection, Temporary House. From the rising scent of a newly seeded garden bed, or the soaring commentary of a raven in sky, to the broken wheel of a bicycle that has left behind by the abrupt flight of troubled neighbors, Chris examines a life, and finds every life-waiting for an acceptance, a landing, a home. I'll will read and re-read this book for years to come.
-J Diego Frey, author of Umbrellas or Else and The Year the Eggs Cracked

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Ransick, Denver Poet Laureate from 2006-2010, was an award winning author of six books of poetry and fiction. He was born and raised in upstate New York and lived in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, California, and Oregon. He worked as a journalist, editor, professor, and speaker and served on his city's public library board, his state's humanities board of directors, and on the PEN Freedom to Write Committee. His first book, Never Summer, won a 2003 Colorado Book Award for Poetry. His book of short stories, A Return to Emptiness, was a 2005 Colorado Book Award for fiction finalist. His stories and poems have been presented on television, radio, and stage, including collaborations with Ballet Nouveau Colorado. He was a faculty member from 2005-2019 at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Denver's independent creative writing school. Lighthouse awarded him the 2013 Beacon Award for Teaching Excellence. Chris held his final reading at Lighthouse Writers Workshop on September 25, 2019. His two works, Joe The Ghost and Temporary House were published posthumously by Middle Creek Publishing in 2022.