"...in this blink of existence,

bookended by nothingness,

it is your simultaneous

presence and absence

that hurtles me through life,

past the ungenerous ones

and straight to the rarity

of our elusive

and unfiltered love."

-stephan silich

'putting the trembling kiss at ease' Stephan Silich's third collection settles on exploring beyond life and love, the mortality that inevitably creeps into even the most ordinary of human contemplations. His writing takes us on solitary contemplative journeys through city streets and toward the edge of consciousness - where memories long past, but fondly captured and revisited, linger in every turn of his carefully crafted prose.

Perhaps it is his father's passing during the production of this work that results in his rumination over what is ultimately relished as eternal matters of the human heart, and how dearly for life, love, and posterity we continue to dare to hold on.

- MARINA ARIS, Founder of the Brooklyn Writers Press