Birthday Questions (39 Laps Around the Sun)
Let me respectfully remind you:
Life and Death are of supreme importance.
Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost.
On this night, the days of our life are decreased by one.
Each of us should strive to awaken.
Awaken! Take heed! Do not squander your life.
– Evening Gatha
Absorbing this World Fully with Todd Davis (Of the Invisible #5)
“Many poets feel that they know the natural world, Todd Davis has absorbed this world fully into his heart and mind. He is a fine, rare poet.”
– Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall
Maurice Manning on the Symbolic & Actual (Of the Invisible #4)
“Although Manning has been lauded throughout the country for his work — garnering accolades from some of the major poets of our time, like W.S. Merwin, in addition to the numerous awards he has received — he has found his place in this literary life, wearing it now as effortlessly as the patterned chambray shirts he favors. He is a man of the people, intent on bringing poetry and scenes of rural beauty to them, words of the past, but also the present — the poetry of preservation, of all of us.”
– Jason Howard, Leo Weekly
Jericho Brown (Of the Invisible #3)
“In that larger tradition of transcendent art, if we let them into our hearts, these new poems from Jericho Brown will awe and unsettle us.”
– Frederick Speers, New York Journal of Books
Chris Dombrowski: Part Two (Of the Invisible #2)
“I hoped for some last gesture beyond a handshake, writes Chris Dombrowski in Ragged Anthem, a soulful book of longing that is as comic as it is reflective. These poems sing of humankind in need of something it can only seem to get from the natural world, and of how we won t get it until we begin to understand ourselves as natural as any tree or river. Or as Dombrowski himself says, Again / I took daybreak for granted, easy / as mistaking pinecone for wasp nest, / wasp nest for shed antler, antler / for branch. Here, these so-called mistakes make for discovery that approaches the magic of revelation.”
– Jericho Brown, author of The Tradition
Chris Dombrowski: Part One (Of the Invisible #1)
“Chris Dombrowski has proven himself to be among the best poets of his generation. As one of those readers who admired and enjoyed his first two books — better put, who has gone to the poems for spiritual sustenance, for wisdom, and for the magic of being transported to the landscapes where the poet makes his life—I’m happy to report that Ragged Anthem continues to sing those essential songs in beautiful and unexpected ways. ”
– Todd Davis, author of Native Species and Winterkill
Of the Invisible (Poetry Trailer)
“The poet is the priest of the invisible.”
— Wallace Stevens