“Nostalgia is that sad happy way of looking back in sepia” (Pg. 85)

There are several bites of Atticus poetry that are immediately identifiable with his name and his brand. NOSTALGIA is not the first that comes to mind, but I feel it is the one that best represents the essence of his work in his most recent book, LVOE. 

It is a tricky time in the world - I suppose it is always a tricky time in the world but we only know the time we live in -  so let’s just say things feel murky out there. Things feel unnerving; they feel like change is chasing us at a pace that we cannot outrun. 

So in the midst of times feeling this way, there is a very specific place in the world for someone like Atticus. 

He takes words and ideas that feel familiar to us all and paints his own version of sepia over them and presents them to us in palatable verses. 

Who doesn’t love a faded photo dripping in sepia? Who doesn’t crave the texture and the promise of the good old days? Even people too young to have had good old days crave the fantasy of a previous generation’s good old days. 

Atticus seems to be a student of human behavior. He assesses the desires around him and within himself and finds relatable ways to sum up those every day feelings - the fleeting thoughts, the fantasies about love, the fantasies of the collective lonely finding connection.

“It’s better to be brave and vulnerable than safe and all alone.” (Pg. 43)

A literary critic could write off some of these one-line poems as click bate for the scrolling fingers on social media. However, is there not merit in offering an ode to thoughtfulness that can be consumed at the pace the world scrolls?

I find my self craving all sorts of literature. I crave complicated and dense poetry, novels filled with strife, fantasy novels that lift my spirits and excite my imagination, and sometimes, my mind just needs some good old-fashioned feel-good simplicity. 

Atticus has an ability to slice through the noise of social media with thoughtful and precise words that suggest that we all have a lot more in common than we might realize. 

In this, Atticus offers us a beautiful thing. The way he puts words together reminds us that no matter what your politics are or what your background is, we are all human and there are certain things that we most certainly share -  whether we like it or not.