Lauren Ducrey

Tongues Tied Lauren Ducrey

"They padded their way into adulthood;

growing up, they learned to line what they felt."




Dedicated to all the kids inside grown bodies who have a lot to say, but don't always know how.




Tongues Tied, Lauren Ducrey's first chapbook, is a collection of thinking, often philosophizing, poems. It enacts the belief poetry has a unique ability to reconcile the analytical mind with a sense of playfulness, intuition and authentic expression. Full of contemplation of the relational, we find a speaker looking to understand the different selves within her, within others, and the world. The poems find diverse subject areas and conceits-from theoretical physics to grammar to psychology-to base this exploration of reconciliation upon.

The book further bridges the worlds of thought and sensation by bringing vivid artwork by French artist Erwan de Beauchaine into conversation with the poems, under the art direction of David Cocciante. As suchTongues Tied offers multiple doors to access poetry for those less familiar with the art form: the falsely naive drawing of two embracing faces might bring your attention to a few verses about two lovers' first encounter. Or you might pause on a bold lettered quote in one of the two page inserts that punctuate the book. Tongues Tied makes a bid to those who do not instinctively feel at home in the poetry section to take a moment and explore what it would feel like for all of us to belong here.