Chance of Lightning

“Kristin Robertson’s Chance of Lightning is electric and sharp. 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. The features of this book’s landscapes are grounded and rich: Corvettes, Kenny Rogers songs, a funerary bouquet in the shape of a telephone, glitter-covered coffins, a goldfish in a plastic cup, a stud in an earring gun, and mullets tossed across state lines. Above all, there is wonder, the poet looking at each thing she examines as if for the first time, seeing all of its wild possibilities. 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