A decade after the sudden and tragic loss of his father, we witness the unfolding of grief. â€œIn the night I brush / my teeth with a razor,â€ he tells us, in one of the collectionâ€™s

Book of Hours: Poems

A decade after the sudden and tragic loss of his father, we witness the unfolding of grief. â€œIn the night I brush / my teeth with a razor,â€ he tells us, in one of the collectionâ€™s piercing two-line poems. Capturing the strange silence of bereavement (â€œNot the storm / but the calm / that slays meâ€), Kevin Young acknowledges, even celebrates, lifeâ€™s passages, his loss transformed and tempered in a sequence about the birth of his son: in â€œCrowning,â€ he delivers what is surely one of the most powerful birth poems written by a man, describing â€œher face / full of fire, then groaning your face / out like a flower, blood-bloom,/ crocused into air.â€ Ending this book of both birth and grief, the gorgeous title sequence brings acceptance, asking â€œWhat good/are wishes if they arenâ€™t / used up?â€ while understanding â€œHow to listen / to whatâ€™s gone.â€ Youngâ€™s frank music speaks directly to the reader in these elemental poems, reminding us that the right words can both comfort us and enlarge our understanding of lifeâ€™s mysteries.
Country USA
Brand Knopf
Manufacturer Knopf
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2014-03-04
EANs 9780307272249

Book of Hours: Poems