Gravity
(By Ari Lohr)
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| Author | Ari Lohr |
My hand
gliding across your naked spine.
In the right light,
all shivering boys look electric.
If I time it just right,
the space will align perfectly,
and I’ll reach between each atom
in your chest,
blending our flesh together.
I will undo everything
– I swear –
until you sing yourself
back to life.
I will meet many men after you,
each one hollow and lifeless
beneath their undressed flesh,
and repeat
the same desperate ritual
with them all.
—
PRAISE FOR “GRAVITY”
“How could poetry about violent assault, about homophobia, about dysmorphia and more all sparkle so brightly? Ari Lohr’s innovative language – and his charting of it – surprises reader skin like faraway fireworks. At just nineteen years old, he deals with heaviness with such light ease—and in Gravity, in such tight spaces, he’s made us a banging breathtaker.”
– Pascale Potvin, author of SEX, GOD, & OCD (Really Serious Literature, 2023)
“In Ari Lohr's stunning poetry collection Gravity, he explores a myriad of themes with vulnerability, urgency, and care, from the unspeakable violence committed against queer boys, to an ode to xyr teeth, to the tender ache of love poems penned to their lover Adam. I was left stunned and amazed by how he revealed and unspooled xyr words on the page, exploring the limits of single-word lines and sporadic, scattered phrases like staggered thoughts against the white. I'm eager for all readers to hold this collection in their hands soon, and for Ari to continue writing what they do best: telling stories through poetry and fearlessly making them known.”
– Sofía Aguilar, poet and author of STREAMING SERVICE: golden shovels made for tv and STREAMING SERVICE: season two
“Gravity holds unyielding forces in its words: the crushing weight of an ever-expanding, ruthless universe, and death and love with the equal pull of their inevitability. Lohr navigates it all through a speaker who ‘is always reaching back’ while falling through these principles. Just like the collection named after it, Lohr confesses: ‘gravity is a silent killer.’”
– Sunny Vuong, editor-in-chief of Interstellar Literary Review
—
ARI LOHR is a queer poet and English Education major at Boston University. Xe is a Brave New Voices semifinalist, Slamlandia finalist, Portland Poetry Slam champion, and a 2021 Best of the Net nominee. Focusing on the mystical intersections between power, sexuality, and identity, Ari’s poetry appears in the Northern Otter Press, Opia Lit, Incandescent Review, and more. They are the author of EJAY., a confessional love letter / poetry chapbook, and Gravity, their debut full-length through Gutslut Press. They are also the managing editor of the Bitter Fruit Review and the editor-in-chief of the Jupiter Review. Xe believes truth is malleable, professionalism is violence, and arrogance is sexy. Ari can be found @arilohr on Twitter and Instagram.”
