Part Darkness Part Breath

There is much to admire about Edward A. Doughertys Part Darkness Part Breath not least of which is that there are precious few poets who have as Dougherty clearly demonstrates throughout the courage and wisdom to confront our most brutal acts through such healing gestures as spirituality marital love community nature and - as if in conscious defiance of Auden - a language that makes something happen that receives such suffering / and responds with hospitality. In poems that range from the tragedies of the atomic bomb to the passion of domestic love Dougherty against our most destructive impulses offers habits of attention. Phil Terman author of House of Sages and Rabbis of the Air