How to Match the Sky

“‘Why did Jesus eat fish / if He stands for non-violence?’ So asks ‘Shelter,’ one of the many invitational, sweetly subversive poems in Kendall Hoeft’s How to Match the Sky. This vibrant debut roves from Christian theology to prehistoric landscapes, from desiring sea to tempestuous heavens, as speakers examine the tension between who we have been and who we need to become. The poet’s tenacious intellect, equal parts honesty and curiosity, examines the expected states of water—ice, liquid, vapor—and adds a wildcard fourth, plasma, evoking body and blood. Full of playfulness in diction and motif, the collection ultimately pairs heavy questions with a phoenix-like determination to rise: ‘scarlet pin pricks resurrecting / feathers over campfire.’”

Sandra Beasley

“Kendall Hoeft’s How to Match the Sky is a memory box of longing. The longing for connection in a world of ‘flesh and survival.’ The longing, like glass, to somehow stay whole. The longing for us all to be ‘good, bright things.’ The longing to ‘move cleanly into light,’ that we each might make ‘space for bloom.’”

Britton Shurley