I Was Working: Poems

“Ariel Yelen’s poetry is exquisitely witty and charming. These poems are intimate etchings of a poet’s daily life under late capitalism. Astutely observed, pleasurable to read, and heartbreakingly relatable, I Was Working is a collection you’ll read and reread.”—Cathy Park Hong, author of Engine Empire and Minor Feelings

“I love poems that impart how poets get by, meaning, what we do for a living. I also love poems that take risks that can only come from lived experiences of risk. In I Was Working, Ariel Yelen lays bare the sly vagaries of late capitalism (would you rather be ‘love-low’ or ‘money-low’?) and offers a way to reinvent our relationships outside the logic of exploitation through authentically living with others. Yelen uses the tension of writing poetry when she has no time to write to create some of the most beautiful ‘work poems’ I have ever read. Her book is no small miracle—it’s so good.”—Stacy Szymaszek, author of Famous Hermits and The Pasolini Book