Christopher Kondrich is the author of Valuing (University of Georgia Press, 2019), selected by Jericho Brown as a winner of the National Poetry Series, and the book-length poem Contrapuntal (Free Verse Editions, 2013). New poems and essays appear or are forthcoming in the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, The Believer, Bennington Review, Crazyhorse, The Kenyon Review, and Poetry Northwest. He currently teaches creative writing for the Lighthouse Writers Workshop and is an Associate Editor of 32 Poems. He lives in Maryland.

Other poems by Christopher Kondrich in Verse Daily:
July 7, 2014:   "Backward-Spreading Brightness" "Clear enough to see you christen or condemn another..."
February 14, 2013:   "[I was always one for]" "I was always one for..."
February 8, 2012:   from Canto Fermo "I came to an embankment..."

Books by Christopher Kondrich:

Other poems on the web by Christopher Kondrich:
"Common Things"
Three poems
Two poems
Two poems

Christopher Kondrich's Website.

Christopher Kondrich on Twitter.

About Valuing:

"'I choose to love / as asylum from that which presses me / to hate,' says the opening poem of Valuing, a rich and vital book by Christopher Kondrich. Lines like these are quite apropos in such a philosophical work of art in which Kondrich questions and embraces both God and pessimism, all the while trying to establish a self—a being worth more than what late capitalism can allow—by chanting what seems like spells born before anyone was born: 'Also, I must capture you in song. I must find music to set to this / aging and follow the river to my death.' There is not space enough for me to write all I love about this book and its potential for influence on poetry and on any mind made vulnerable to poetry."
—Jericho Brown

"It is one thing to know there are limits to human knowledge, boundaries to how much we can accurately say about our labyrinthine selves, the objects we touch, and, more vastly, the mystery in which we spin. It is another thing entirely for a poet to articulate this so keenly that suddenly our limits become our bounty. What is of value in us? 'To live amongst walls and proclaim those walls a home,' Kondrich writes. Valuing instructs us through disappointment and joy in a rare and trustworthy measure. The poems are entire philosophies, but they must try again and again with each turn of the page, as such is our lot. And although we move within the limits of knowledge and language, 'Do not worry. The other side / will lift you and change you / if how you were standing / doesn't make it across.' I, for one, need this book."
—Katie Ford

"In Valuing Christopher Kondrich fashions startling, arresting images and fabulous metaphors that are all the more startling, arresting, and fabulous because they're so functional to the overflowing reality and profundity of his poems. He has an excellent mind accompanied by an exuberant imagination."
—Vijay Seshadri