The Window Light

<p class=ql-align-justify>Michael Broek's <em>The Window Light</em> about a devastating time in his son's life is clearly written with Edward Hirsch's Gabriel in mind. In fact its use of an epigraph from Gabriel shows the reader the stakes of this collection from the very first page. These poems grapple with the heartbreaking and all-encompassing experience of trying to take care of a child in crisis. It is a work of brutal honesty and self-recrimination that thrums with intensity. While acknowledging how often humans are powerless to save or even help those we love most Broek's tightly crafted spare poems remind us of the power of art-both experiencing it and making it-to heal.</p><p class=ql-align-justify><strong>-Jennifer Franklin</strong> <em>No Small Gift</em> (Four Way Books 2018)</p><p><br></p>