Sun in Days: Poems

A groundbreaking new collection by a celebrated writer of “ambitious and dynamic poems” (New York Times).

From the acclaimed poet and critic Meghan O’Rourke comes a powerful collection about the frailty of the body, the longing for a child, and the philosophical questions raised when the body goes dramatically awry. In formally ambitious poems and lyric essays, Sun in Days gives voice to the experience of illness, the permanence of loss, and invigorating moments of grace. Wresting a recuperative beauty from one’s days, O’Rourke traces an arc from loss and illness to the life force of pregnancy and motherhood. Along the way, she investigates a newfound existential awareness of all that vanishes. This is O’Rourke’s most ambitious book to date: unsentimental yet deeply felt, and characterized by the lyric precision and force of observation for which her work is known.

From “Idiopathic Illness”

What can be said? I came w/o a warranty,
Stripped of me―or me-ish-ness―
I was a will in a subpar body.
I waxed toward all that waned inside.