Rile & Heave

In the ecstatic tradition, this debut collection considers language as a devotion. Located in an American grain, the poems attempt to enact a collectivity, a body politic, even when the context necessary for collectivity is disrupted--by powerful storms resulting from climate change, by alienation, even by the remediation of the body in airport security lines. Yet, the poet remains stubbornly optimistic, asking readers to recognize that the "world is filling up with/gladness, see. Its utterance/ becomes a door. Enter."

great comet of 1680 (ISON)

It sounds messed up

but in the end I imagine

making paper mache

globes covered with our faces

& hanging them from the ceiling,

minus everything we thought it was

we were doing here . . .