Description:
At its best, poetry paints life's briefest moments in language that redefines them in context of the world's larger canvas. Eamon Grennan's poetry composes these moments into masterpieces of color and light. This major collection combines the best of his previous work. For example, in "Compass Reading" a cat killing a bird leads to a contemplation of death's inevitability: "I imagine / its first arrested screech, the cat / tasting a salt smear of blood / across tongue and teeth: she knows / the ripe smell of death ... wherever my ears go, they hear / nothing but clocks ticking, each tick / a distinct penetration of air, a pulsebeat / greeting its own goodbye." In "Oasis," a pool of water provides both joy and reflection. The poem is cast in short lines that each holds an image of water's pleasures, such as "you keep saying / its wedded syllables / as if they were enough" and "it fills, overspills / the heart in your mouth / like another life." Grennan's exquisite poems give this bustling world of ours the luxury of pause, like sitting on a rooftop on a warm, starry night. You know that you may have been here before, but you've never seen stars quite like this.
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