About Robertson's Chance of Lightning

Chance of Lightning is a precarious love letter that wagers mystery against easy answers and unflinching vulnerability against inevitable misfortune. Sonnets, prose poems, and experiments in lyrical verse create a world of imaginary lottery winners—from a man who invests his windfall in a dove-release business to a woman who tracks down every person she’s ever kissed—and explore themes of birth, death, loss, and survival.

“From a crown of sonnets likening love to the elements of the periodic table to a sequence of poems imagining what lottery winners might do with their winnings if they hit the jackpot, Robertson’s way with language, image, and thought is dazzling and fresh. With humor, punch, and heart, Chance of Lightning strikes deep into what is elemental, what is luck, what is loss, and what is love. Every page of this book surprised me. Kristin Robertson is a poet to watch.” —Melissa H. Range, judge and author of Scriptorium: Poems