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Poetry & prose · Don Sylvester

What
Stays After

Leaving Hawaiʻi, returning to Baltimore, and the distance between a familiar place and a familiar life.

Read the collection →

Five pieces. Free to read, at your own pace.

Working cover · Edition in preparation

The reading order

From leaving
to returning.

These pieces follow a changing understanding of home, of a marriage, and of the person making the return.

  1. 01

    Home

    The place I could not keep.

  2. 02

    The Leap of Faith

    Choosing before knowing where I would land.

  3. 03

    The Truth of the Situation

    Belonging, marriage, and the parts of myself I changed.

  4. 04

    The One Who Stayed

    What leaving cost someone else.

  5. 05

    The Return

    A familiar place. An unfamiliar life.

An edition to keep · In preparation

The page. The voice.
The silence between.

The planned edition brings these five pieces together as a designed digital chapbook, individual readings by Don, and a complete listening version. The recordings and finished download are still being prepared.

No purchase is available yet. The individual pieces will remain free to read.