This astonishing, self-assured debut leads us on an exploration to the stars and back, begging us to reconsider our boundaries of self, time, space, and knowledge. The speaker writes, "...the universe/is an arrow/without end/and it asks only one question;/How dare you?"
Zigzagging through the realms of nature, science, and religion, one finds St. Francis sighing in the corner of a studio apartment, tides that are caused by millions of oysters "gasping in unison," an ark filled with women in its stables, and prayers that reach God fastest by balloon. There's pathos: "When my new lover tells me I'm correct to love him, I/realize the sound isn't metal at all. It's not the coins rattling/ on concrete, but the fingers scraping to pick them up." And humour, too: "...even the sun's been sighing Not you again/when it sees me." After reading this far-reaching, inventive collection, we too are startled, space struck, our pockets gloriously "filled with space dust."
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[I'm going to show you some photos / extreme close-ups of normal, everyday / creatures. A patch of gray fur, half a yellow eye NORMAL EVERYDAY CREATURES]***
(@sarabandebooks, 1 October 2019, 96 pages, borrowed from @natpoetrylib via @OverDriveLibs)
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I'd never heard of the poet before and chose to read this at random. This is an impressive debut collection. The poems explore subjects such as science, nature and religion but are open to be interpreted in many different ways. These are the kind of poems that will mean something different to everyone who reads them. Many of them were beautifully written and I was impressed by the poet's use of imagery and vivid descriptions. I enjoyed every poem. I look forward to seeing what Lewis comes up with next.
