On August 17, 2026, the literary community turned its attention to a striking new entry in contemporary verse: Amanda Gaines’s poem "In Another Life," selected as the Poem of the Week. Far from a conventional meditation on regret or alternate timelines, Gaines’s work operates as an inventory of the absurd, the tender, and the unflinchingly honest. Built upon the rhythmic engine of anaphora—the repeated deployment of the phrase "I found"—the poem constructs a sprawling catalogue of parallel existences, domestic surrealism, and psychological excavation.
Gaines, an accomplished Appalachian writer, postdoctoral fellow, and teaching assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, has crafted a piece that transcends standard lyric introspection. Born out of a creative writing dry spell, "In Another Life" investigates the mechanics of desire, the weight of everyday absurdities, and the quiet resilience hidden within human fantasy. This piece examines the structural anatomy of the poem, contextualizes Gaines’s broader literary footprint, analyzes her authorial intent, and evaluates the cultural resonance of a work that dares to find wonder in the worn grooves of the interior life.
Detailed Chronology and Literary Context: The Rise of Amanda Gaines
To understand the weight of "In Another Life," one must first examine the trajectory of its creator. Amanda Gaines’s arrival at this specific artistic milestone is the result of years of rigorous poetic development, academic grounding, and widespread publication across premier literary journals.
Earning her PhD in creative writing from Oklahoma State University, Gaines anchored her artistic sensibilities in the complex cultural and geographical landscapes of Appalachia. Her voice bridges the gap between regional specificity and universal existential inquiry. Over the years, her poetry and prose have established a formidable footprint in contemporary American letters, appearing in elite publications such as:
The Southern Review
American Literary Review
Pleiades
Rattle
New Orleans Review
Passages North
Cleaver
Potomac Review
Barrelhouse
Fugue
december
Witness
Southern Humanities Review
Willow Springs
Redivider
Southeast Review
Juked
SmokeLong Quarterly
Ninth Letter
Now serving as a postdoctoral fellow and teaching assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, Gaines balances the rigorous demands of academic mentorship with an active, highly productive creative output. Her digital home at amandamariegaines.com serves as a repository for her expanding bibliography, culminating in her latest high-profile feature with the Poem of the Week series.
Textual Analysis: "In Another Life" by Amanda Gaines
In Another Life
I found a fox skull on the highway and kept it in my freezer.
I found a private school to send my stretch marks.
I found a vacuum cleaner on sale and couldn’t afford it.
I found you can get around guilt with an oyster fork.
I found a letter in my mailbox addressed to a version of me I’d never met and got
embarrassed.
I found my G-spot hiding behind my ears.
I found a receipt showing I bought all this self-esteem but can’t remember where
I put it.
I found a teacup full of wine and fell in.
I found that tearing velvet from antlers isn’t all that painful.
I found God but lost Him at Sam’s Club.
I found a bottomless lake in my closet, grew gills, and was very proud of my
adaptability.
I found my knuckles tattooed with the word prodigal.
I found Atlantis and wasn’t impressed.
I found it within myself to say I hope you’re happy and mean it.
I found a dollar on the side of the road and spent the next seven years searching
for its owner.
I found a fortune teller who said she’d refer me to a psychologist.
I found a strand of yarn sticking out of my rug, and I’m still pulling.
I found a way to get with the program already.
I found the fève in a king cake, but nobody would acknowledge my sovereignty.
I found my mind at the pound and bought a shock collar.
I found revenge tastes fine regardless of its preparation.
I found the perfect ant colony to join, and no, we’re not a cult.
I found coal in a river and didn’t tell anyone.
I found a treasure map, but didn’t feel up for a challenge.
I found the right words to say to you.
I found a parasitic wasp cracking a chrysalis and didn’t make it about me.
I found a tooth beneath my pillow and didn’t ask questions.
I found time and applied for an apartment in her belly.
I found out after a lot of fucking around.
I found peace while unpeeling an orange and couldn’t believe my luck.
I found the mistletoe at a Christmas party and stayed there all night,
open-mouthed.
The Mechanics of Anaphora and Surrealist Accumulation
The structural genius of "In Another Life" lies in its unrelenting use of anaphora. Every single line initiates with the exact same trochaic declaration: “I found.” This repeated grammatical anchor creates a hypnotic rhythm, forcing the reader through a rapid-fire succession of disparate images. The poem functions like a cabinet of curiosities, or a modern Wunderkammer, where natural history specimens sit side-by-side with domestic failures, psychological breakthroughs, and absurd fantasies.
Consider the opening triad:
“I found a fox skull on the highway and kept it in my freezer.” (Macabre preservation)
“Ifound a private school to send my stretch marks.” (Anthropomorphized somatic insecurity)
“I found a vacuum cleaner on sale and couldn’t afford it.” (Class-conscious domestic frustration)
These lines establish a tonal baseline that is simultaneously gothic, humorous, and deeply vulnerable. Gaines refuses to separate the profound from the mundane. Finding God at Sam’s Club (“I found God but lost Him at Sam’s Club”) sits comfortably alongside the bodily grotesque (“I found my G-spot hiding behind my ears”) and the existential exhaustion of modern life (“I found a receipt showing I bought all this self-esteem but can’t remember where I put it”).
Myth, Metaphor, and Micro-Narratives
As the poem progresses, the scale shifts fluidly between micro-domestic moments and macro-mythological landscapes. Atlantis is discovered and dismissed (“I found Atlantis and wasn’t impressed”), while geological and biological transformations are met with casual acceptance (“I found a bottomless lake in my closet, grew gills, and was very proud of my adaptability”).
There is an acute self-awareness running through these lines. The speaker is not a pristine, infallible lyric persona; rather, she is messy, defensive, hopeful, and self-deprecating. When she discovers “a fortune teller who said she’d refer me to a psychologist,” the poem punctures mystical pretension with clinical reality. Similarly, the line “I found a parasitic wasp cracking a chrysalis and didn’t make it about me” serves as a masterclass in modern emotional restraint—a humorous nod to the human impulse to center oneself within every observed natural phenomenon.
The poem concludes with a descent into micro-sensory peace and grotesque social commitment:
“I found peace while unpeeling an orange and couldn’t believe my luck.” “I found the mistletoe at a Christmas party and stayed there all night, open-mouthed.”
Here, epiphany arrives not through grand spiritual awakenings, but through the citrus spray of an orange peel or the stubborn, awkward lingering under holiday greenery.
Official Statements and Authorial Intent
In an illuminating author’s note accompanying the publication, Amanda Gaines opened up about the genesis of "In Another Life," revealing the psychological and creative landscape from which the poem emerged:
"This poem began as a kind of thought experiment—one I hoped would pull me out from a writing dry spell. Back then, I felt unmoored. Bored. I spent a lot of time thinking about revisionist histories, the allure of speculation, and the ways in which, if we are honest with ourselves, our fantasies can be pretty embarrassing or just as disappointing as our lived lives."
Gaines directly addresses the structural choice of her repetitive refrain, noting how it transformed her perspective on the act of writing:
"The anaphora of I found allowed me to consider the repetitive act of being in the world with wonder rather than resignation. What possibilities open up when we allow ourselves to play or get real with the stickier aspects of our humanity?"
Crucially, Gaines anchors the poem’s emotional core in the concept of vulnerability and the quiet rebellion of hope:
"Conceding a dream self—even ones that are messy or silly—is to confess the most vulnerable of feelings: hope. This poem is an exercise in hopefulness that I, we, you, whoever, can still be surprised when tracing the worn grooves of our interior lives."
Supporting Context & Metrics: The Contemporary Literary Ecosystem
The release and reception of "In Another Life" arrive within a broader ecosystem of contemporary American poetry that increasingly values hybrid modes of lyricism—combining deadpan humor, surrealism, and confessional vulnerability.
Publication Metrics and Digital Reach
Platform:The Missouri Review (Poem of the Week digital feature).
Release Date: August 17, 2026.
Author Affiliation: University of Tennessee (Postdoctoral Fellow and Teaching Assistant Professor).
Terminal Degrees: PhD in Creative Writing, Oklahoma State University.
Literary Network: Spanning over 20 independent and university-backed literary magazines across the United States.
By leveraging platforms like The Missouri Review, contemporary poets are able to bypass traditional publishing gatekeepers temporarily to connect directly with a digitally dispersed readership. Gaines’s inclusion in this slot underscores her growing stature as a vital voice in 21st-century poetry.
Future Outlook: What Lies Ahead for Amanda Gaines
As Amanda Gaines continues her tenure at the University of Tennessee, the literary world is watching closely for her next major collection. "In Another Life" signals an artist working at the height of her powers—someone capable of balancing academic rigor with an untamed, inventive imaginative spark.
The themes explored in this poem—alternative histories, domestic surrealism, the friction between consumer culture and spiritual yearning, and the radical act of maintaining hope—suggest fertile ground for future manuscripts. Whether she is pulling at a loose thread in a rug (“I found a strand of yarn sticking out of my rug, and I’m still pulling”) or mapping the interior geography of an Appalachian consciousness, Gaines has proven that the "worn grooves" of our interior lives are far from exhausted.
In a cultural moment often dominated by cynicism and rapid digital consumption, "In Another Life" offers a necessary counterweight: an invitation to linger, to marvel at the fox skull in the freezer, and to find unexpected peace right in the middle of peeling an orange.
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