"Stucky's verse has the power of the best East European poets—some of his poems seem to be perfect, magnificent, and instantly anthologizable. He is a forceful, cogent, incisive phrase-maker."—Bill Knott
"The yearning in these poems is awash in dense, spiritual sexuality buffeted by time and the mishandling of promises and breakable bonds."—apt 
The Truth Is We Are Perfect contains fifty-four lyrics exploring the loss of oneself through the loss of an other, and how we seek to recreate ourselves in that absence. Stucky journeys into nothingness and, consequently, into awareness. His meditative sensibilities and minimalist style create ritualized poems acting as spells—transcribed to be read aloud and performed in the service of realizing that which we seek to become: "Because I love a burning thing / I made my heart a field of fire."
Janaka Stucky is the publisher of Black Ocean as well as the annual poetry journal Handsome. He is the author of two chapbooks: Your Name Is The Only Freedom, and The World Will Deny It For You. His poems have appeared in such journals as Denver Quarterly, Fence and North American Review, and his articles have been published by the Huffington Post and thePoetry Foundation. He is a two-time National Haiku Champion and in 2010 he was voted "Boston's Best Poet" in the Boston Phoenix.

The Truth Is We Are Perfect

Self-Help

Stucky, Janaka

Relationships

Third Man Books

Ascend Ascend was written over the course of twenty days, coming in and out of trance states brought on by intermittent fasting and somatic rituals while secluded in the tower of a 100-year-old church. It is rooted in the jewish mystical tradition of merkabah literature, chronicling an ascent up the kabbalistic sefirot to witness the “chariot of god.” While traditional merkabah prose trends dry―focused on preparations for the journey while demurring to describe the experience itself―Ascend Ascend uses poetry to touch the ineffable. Equal parts Walt Whitman and Maggot Brain, this long poem documents the ecstatic destruction of the self.

Ascend Ascend

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Speak These Words: a Guerilla Poets anthology

Writers Pub Coopertive

Poetry. "A gaudy, blistering, over-the-top wild love-complaint cry-out. Call it sentimental, it will kick you in the teeth. 'Your lipstick strapped tightly to my chest / I run into a crowded restaurant / And plug it in,' and the lights come on for a new line, an underground line, an express line, expressive, ancient, new and bold."—Cathy Wagner, judge of the 2011 Ahsahta Press Chapbook Contest

The World Will Deny It for You

Ahsahta Press

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Books by Stucky, Janaka